February 27 1862 Thursday
Burnside’s Expedition to North Carolina
Sibley’s Operations in New Mexico
CSA. The Confederate government gave President Jefferson Finis Davis the wartime authority to suspend the writ of habeas corpus.
CSA. A debate in a secret session of the Confederate Congress concluded with the forwarding of a Bill to President Jefferson Finis Davis to create the post of Commanding General of the Army. Davis resisted all such efforts to create a post of General-in-Chief until January 1865, serving his right as President to be the Commander-in-Chief of all the nation’s military forces.
New York. Already delayed for one day by a shortage of ammunition, USS Monitor departed from the New York Navy Yard but the unseaworthy ship was compelled to turn back because of a steering failure.
Tennessee. Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston took active command of the Army of Central Kentucky at Jackson. The army had withdrawn from Nashville to Murfreesboro and then on to Decatur, Alabama, before stopping along the Memphis & Charleston Railroad south of the Tennessee River. Johnston aimed to cooperate with the forces of General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard who was directing the defence of the Mississippi River.
Virginia. Captain French Forrest CSN, commanding the Navy Yard at Norfolk, reported that a shortage of gunpowder was delaying the readiness of CSS Virginia to begin operations against the Union blockading fleet.
Union Organisation
USA: The District of the Mississippi was established in the Department of the Missouri, comprising the parts of Missouri between the Saint Francis River and the Mississippi River.
USA: Brigadier-General John Pope assumed command of the District of the Mississippi.
USA: The Army of the Mississippi transferred to the District of the Mississippi.
USA: Brigadier-General John Pope retained 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 the Mississippi: John Pope
- Army of the Mississippi: John Pope
- 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
Confederate Organisation
CSA: General Albert Sidney Johnston arrived to command the Army of Central Kentucky, succeeding Major-General William Joseph Hardee.
CSA: Carter Littlepage Stevenson promoted Brigadier-General PACS 6 March 1862 to rank from 27 February 1862.
CSA: Danville Leadbetter promoted Brigadier-General PACS 6 March 1862 to rank from 27 February 1862.
CSA: William Whann Mackall promoted Brigadier-General PACS 6 March 1862 to rank from 27 February 1862.
CSA: Captain Franklin Buchanan CSN assumed command of the James River Naval Squadron.
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 East Tennessee: Edmund Kirby Smith awaited
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
- 1st Sub-District of South Carolina: Arthur Middleton Manigault.
- 2nd Sub-District of South Carolina: Roswell Sabine Ripley
- 3rd Sub-District of South Carolina: Nathan George Evans
- 4th Sub-District of South Carolina: John Clifford Pemberton
- 5th 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: Albert Sidney Johnston
- First Geographical Division: Leonidas Polk
- Trans-Mississippi District: Earl Van Dorn
- District of North Alabama: Daniel Ruggles
- Army of Central Kentucky: Albert Sidney Johnston
- 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
Ambrose Powell Hill
James Johnston Pettigrew
Carter Littlepage Stevenson
Daniel Leadbetter
William Whann Mackall
Daniel Marsh Frost
American Civil War High Command 