1862 February 9th

February 9 1862 Sunday

Forts Henry & Donelson Campaign
Burnside’s Expedition to North Carolina

Go to February 10 1862

Illinois.  A new Federal Military Prison was opened by the Union authorities in the abandoned state penitentiary at Alton, near the Mississippi River northeast of St Louis, Missouri. The facility was originally designed in 1831 for 800 convicts but held almost 1,9o0 prisoners of war at one point, including some political and civilian inmates including twelve women.

Missouri. Skirmish at Marshfield involving Union Brigadier-General Samuel Ryan Curtis.

North Carolina. After Union Brigadier-General Ambrose Everett Burnside and the naval flotilla under Captain Louis Malesherbes Goldsborough USN captured Roanoke Island, all that stood in the way of the Union Navy was the Confederate Mosquito Fleet. Confederate Captain William Francis Lynch CSN withdrew his small fleet to Elizabeth City, in order to re-supply and enable repairs to  CSS Forrest. Failing to find ammunition to replenish his magazines, he sent Commander Thomas T Hunter, former captain of the destroyed CSS Curlew, to Norfolk to obtain supplies. He later sent CSS Raleigh up the Dismal Swamp Canal for the same purpose. Hunter returned with enough to re-supply only two ships and Lynch divided it among his remaining serviceable ships. CSS Raleigh, however, was not able to return in time. Lynch now had at his disposal six ships in the water, each with only enough shot and powder to be able to fire ten times. His flagship, CSS Sea Bird, carrying two guns, was a converted side-wheel steamer. Three of his other vessels were former tugs: CSS Appomattox and CSS Ellis, each with two guns, and CSS Beaufort, with only one. CSS Fanny, with two guns, had been a transport vessel used by the United States Army until she was captured near Cape Hatteras. The CSS Black Warrior was a schooner pressed into service only four days before the battle and was armed with two 32-pounder guns.
Goldsborough ordered his gunboats to pursue the Confederate Mosquito Fleet and destroy it. Fourteen undamaged shallow-draft ships with a total of 37 guns undertook the pursuit under Commander Stephen Clegg Rowan USN. They were all converted from civilian vessels converted into gunboats. Rowan’s flagship was USS Delaware. USS Hetzel, USS Isaac N Seymour, USS John Lockwood, USS Ceres, and USS General Putnam had all been side-wheel steamers before being acquired by the Navy. USS Shawsheen was also a side-wheel steamer, and like two of her opponents was a former tug. Two other side-wheel vessels, USS Commodore Perry and USS Morse had been ferries. The remaining five ships, USS Louisiana, USS Underwriter, USS Valley City, USS Whitehead, and USS Henry Brinker were screw steamers. Rowan ordered the ships’ captains in his fleet to conserve their ammunition. They were told to use ramming and boarding tactics rather than gunfire, so far as was possible, to disable or capture the enemy ships. Rowan’s gunboats passed through Croatan Sound and crossed Albemarle Sound. As they approached Elizabeth City they anchored for the night and prepared to engage the Confederate fleet.

Tennessee. Confederate Brigadier-General Bushrod Rust Johnson conceded command of Fort Donelson, to his senior officer Brigadier-General Gideon Johnson Pillow, who had arrived with his division from Clarksville.

Virginia. Incident at Bloomery Gap.

^{Union Organisation}

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 awaited

Department of the Missouri: Henry Wager Halleck

• District of Cairo: Ulysses Simpson Grant
• District of St Louis: John McAllister Schofield
• District of Central Missouri: John Pope
  • Army of Western Missouri: John Pope
• 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 England: Benjamin Franklin Butler

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: Colonel Henry Marchmore Shaw assumed command of the District of Roanoke Island, succeeding Brigadier-General Henry Alexander Wise.

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 awaited

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
• Army of the Northwest: Edward Johnson temporary

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

• 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

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
Ulysses Simpson Grant
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

Brigadier-General PACS

Alexander Robert Lawton
Benjamin McCulloch
William Wing Loring
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
Louis Trezevant Wigfall
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
Joseph Brevard Kershaw
Daniel Marsh Frost