1862 February 23rd

February 23 1862 Sunday

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

Go to February 24 1862

CSA. Although many prisoners of war had already been released on parole, the first discussion of formal exchanges of prisoners of war was held between Union Brigadier-General John Ellis Wool and Confederate Brigadier-General Thomas Howell Cobb. No agreement on prisoner exchanges was reached at this stage.

Arkansas. Union reconnaissance to Pea Ridge Prairie began.

Arkansas. Expedition to Fayetteville ended.  The vanguard of Union Brigadier-General Samuel Ryan Curtis’ Army of the Southwest under Brigadier-General Alexander Asboth occupied Fayetteville. Confederate raiders harassed the Union supply lines to Huntsville and Keetsville, Missouri.

Kentucky. Confederate Major-General Leonidas deterred a gunboat reconnaissance of his positions at Columbus while he hastened his preparations to evacuate the fortifications.

Louisiana. The Union Department of the Gulf was established, with responsibility for forces in the Gulf of Mexico states including Louisiana west of the Mississippi River. Although there were few very troops in the theatre, effectively only a garrison at Ship Island to protect the naval base, an expeditionary force was being assembled in New England under Major-General Benjamin Franklin Butler. When ready, Butler’s force would be transported to Louisiana to undertake operations to capture New Orleans in cooperation with the US Navy.

Missouri. Union Major-General John Pope assumed command of the Army of the Mississippi. This comprised the forces operating along the Mississippi River. Pope commanded five divisions of infantry, several cavalry brigades, and a flotilla brigade being trained for amphibious operations. He had a total strength of 19,000 men exclusive of the naval commands. The army began to concentrate around Commerce.

Missouri. Union reconnaissance from Greenville and skirmish near Greeenville.

New Mexico Territory. After the victory at Valverde, Confederate Brigadier-General Henry Hopkins Sibley decided to abandon his attempt to capture Fort Craig. After a day of rest, he resumed his march northwards towards Albuquerque and Santa Fe, where he hoped to capture much-needed supplies. However, he was severely hampered by the loss of horses and mules during the battle, forcing him to dismount the 4^th Texas Cavalry as infantry and destroy some supplies and wagons.
Union Colonel Edward Richard Sprigg Canby blamed his unreliable militia regiments for the setback at Valverde. Considering himself to be outnumbered, he chose not to pursue Sibley. Instead, he sent mounted detachments of New Mexico volunteers to harass the Confederates’ rear and lines of communications. He remained with the main body at Fort Craig where he was close to the Confederates’ supply line and could intercept any reinforcements being sent to join Sibley. Canby hoped eventually to pin the main Confederate main body between his own position and the Union reinforcements advancing from Fort Union. He sent orders for all the outposts on the Confederate line of march to be removed or destroyed in a “scorched earth” policy, knowing that plentiful supplies were essential for even a small force to survive in the arid and deserted region.

South Carolina. Union reconnaissance to Bull River and Schooner Channel began.

Tennessee. Expedition to Nashville began.

Tennessee. Confederate Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest’s rearguard left Nashville as Union scouts reached the outskirts of the town. He headed for Murfreesboro forty miles to the southeast, where General Albert Sidney Johnston had withdrawn with the Army of Central Kentucky. The loss of Nashville and other sites on the river cost the Confederates many badly-needed manufacturing facilities. The mayor of Nashville rowed across the river to offer the city’s surrender but he found he was confronted by a lone Union captain and a squad of cavalrymen from the advanced guard of Brigadier-General Don Carlos Buell’s Army of the Ohio.

Tennessee. Most of Union Major-General Ulysses Simpson Grant’s Army of West Tennessee remained at Fort Donelson, awaiting more reinforcements that would bring his force up to 30,000 men. Grant had been reinforced already and his army had grown from three to four divisions. One of these divisions was pushed forward to Clarksville but did not approach Nashville.

Union Organisation

USA: The Department of the Gulf was established, with responsibility for forces in the Gulf of Mexico states including Louisiana west of the Mississippi River.
USA: Major-General Benjamin Franklin Butler was appointed to command the Department of the Gulf, arriving on 20 March 1862.
USA: The Army of the Gulf was established in the Department of the Gulf. The army was currently assembling in New England in preparation to be transported by sea to Louisiana.
USA: Major-General Benjamin Franklin Butler assumed command of the Army of the Gulf.

USA: The Army of the Mississippi was officially announced for the proposed Department of the Mississippi, which would be formally established on 1 March  1862. It comprised the forces of the former Army of Western Missouri.
USA: Brigadier-General John Pope assumed command of the Army of the Mississippi.

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 the Gulf: Benjamin Franklin Butler awaited

• Army of the Gulf: Benjamin Franklin Butler

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

• 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 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

Army of the Mississippi: John Pope

Confederate Organisation

CSA: The District of Albemarle was discontinued.

CSA: Brigadier-General Daniel Ruggles arrived to command the District of North Alabama.

CSA: General Albert Sidney Johnston assumed command of the Army of Central Kentucky, arriving on 27 February 1862.

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

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 North Alabama: Daniel Ruggles
• District of East Tennessee: George Bibb Crittenden
• Army of Central Kentucky: William Joseph Hardee interim  Albert Sidney Johnston awaited
• 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