June 28 1862 Saturday
Passage of Vicksburg, MS
Tunstall Station, VA
Seven Days’ Battles
Naval Assault on Vicksburg
USA. Following his poor performance in command and after his refusal to serve as commander of I Corps (Virginia) under his junior, Major-General John Pope, Major-General USA John Charles Frémont was relieved of duty. He was not assigned to another command before he resigned on 4 June 1864. His spells of command had met with repeated failures and controversy both west of the Mississippi and in western Virginia. He spent the remainder of the war in New York, awaiting orders and engaging in politics.
Arkansas. Their experience in the navigation of the White River made it apparent to the Union naval forces that control of the tributaries of the Mississippi, especially during the dry season, required a large fleet of gunboats of lesser draught than those currently available. The new gunboats were to be better protected around the machinery and pilot houses against musket fire and were fitted to mount howitzers, field pieces, and light guns.
Georgia. USS Braziliera captured the schooner Chance with a cargo of salt off Wassaw Sound.
Louisiana. Incidents at Amite River and Williams’ Bridge.
Passage of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Union Captain David Glasgow Farragut’s fleet ended its ineffective mortar bombardment of Vicksburg. The Union bombardment inflicted 22 casualties among the Confederates and temporarily disabled two guns.
Farragut now prepared to pass the heavy batteries at Vicksburg to make rendezvous with the Western Gunboat Flotilla north of the city. Eleven warships (three heavy sloops, two light sloops, and six gunboats) formed the column to pass the batteries with the smaller vessels clinging to the western banks while the heavier USS Hartford and USS Brooklyn took the middle channel behind the lead of USS Richmond. The fleet departed at about 2 am and from 5 am onwards they were subjected to heavy fire from the Confederate guns. All of the Union ships were struck repeatedly and USS Brooklyn and two gunboats lost power and were forced to drift back downstream. However, eight ships passed to safety beyond the bend for a loss of 15 men killed and 30 wounded.
Mississippi. Union cavalry pickets from Major-General William Starke Rosecrans’ command were attacked by Confederates at Blackland and forced to pull back to the main lines.
Missouri. Union operation began in Johnson County under orders to shoot every armed bushwhacker on the spot.
South Carolina. The Union operation at James Island ended end in the evacuation of the island and the decision to attempt further offensive moves towards Charleston by a more promising route.
Tennessee. Skirmish at Sparta.
Virginia. Expedition from Fort Monroe began.
Virginia. Operation at Tunstall Station.
Virginia. Skirmishes at Dispatch Station, Garnett’s Farm, Golding’s Farm, White House, Fair Oaks, and Bottom’s Bridge.
Tunstall Station, Virginia. During the night, the Union Army of the Potomac had begun a general withdrawal toward the James River, preceded by their supply trains of 3,600 wagons, 700 ambulances, and 2,500 beef cattle. Unlike most other observers, Major-General George Brinton McClellan did not view this movement as a retreat but rather described it as a change of his base of operations to a safer location. The bulk of the Union Army of the Potomac moved to concentrate around Savage’s Station on the Richmond & York River Railroad, and prepared for a difficult crossing through and around White Oak Swamp. By 4 am, Union Brigadier-General Fitz John Porter’s exposed V Corps had withdrawn south of the Chickahominy, burning the bridges behind it.
Confederate scouts reported the withdrawal of the Union army from its positions north of the Chickahominy River. Among the deserters and stragglers,that they captured was Union Brigadier-General John Fulton Reynolds, who had overslept in the woods and been left behind. Confederate General Robert Edward Lee was unable to cross the burned bridges behind the retreating enemy and ordered his cavalry under Brigadier-General James Ewell Brown Stuart to explore past his left flank, checking whether the retreat was headed back down the peninsula or to the James River. Major-General Richard Stoddert Ewell’s division was to follow Stuart’s route towards Dispatch Station where an advanced supply depot had been set up by the Union on the railway. Stuart’s cavalry soon arrived at Tunstall Station. His forward pickets asked Stuart to inspect personally a Union position at Black Creek where a Union cavalry squadron and an artillery position further back, were located on the opposite creek bank. Stuart discovered that the bridge across the creek had been burned and the creek banks were very steep with miry approaches, preventing attack by fording the creek. Stuart called for Major John Pelham and his artillery battery to engage the Union position. Pelham’s gunners dislodged the Union cavalry and exposed a hidden ambush that had been set for the Confederates. Stuart sent dismounted skirmishers across the creek to scout further. Discovering that the Chickahominy Bridge was burnt, Stuart added to Ewell’s report that heavy Union columns were seen heading south, confirming that their destination was the James River and not eastwards down the Yorktown peninsula.
Virginia. A large Union force burned White House, the estate of Colonel William Henry Fitzhugh Lee, a son of Confederate General Robert Edward Lee. USS Marblehead, Lieutenant S Nicholson, and USS Chocura, Lieutenant Thomas H Patterson, provided support for the withdrawal of troops from White House on the Pamunkey River.
Virginia. Union gunboats moved up the James River for close support of the Army of the Potomac as it transferred its base to Harrison’s Landing, and to provide offshore protection for the new depot.
Union Organisation
USA: Brigadier-General Robert Cumming Schenck assumed temporary command I Corps (Virginia), succeeding Major-General John Charles Frémont.
USA: Brigadier-General John Fulton Reynolds was captured at Gaines’ Mill.
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: James Lawrence Lardner
Pacific Squadron: Charles H Bell
Western Gunboat Flotilla: Charles Henry Davis
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
- Sub-District of Jackson: John Alexander McClernand
- Army of West Tennessee: Ulysses Simpson Grant
- Army of the Mississippi: William Starke Rosecrans
- 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 Missouri: John McAllister Schofield
- District of Southwest Missouri: Egbert Benson Brown
- Army of the Southwest: Samuel Ryan Curtis
- District of Northwest Missouri: vacant
Department of the Gulf: Benjamin Franklin Butler
- Army of the Gulf: Benjamin Franklin Butler
Department of Kansas: James Gilpatrick Blunt
Middle Department: John Ellis Wool
- District of the Eastern Shore of Maryland: Henry Hayes Lockwood
Department of New Mexico: Edward Richard Sprigg Canby
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: Justis Steinburger
- District of Southern California: George Washington Bowie
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
- V Corps Potomac: Fitz John Porter
- VI Corps Potomac: William Buel Franklin
Department of the South: David Hunter
Department of Texas: Vacant
Department of Virginia: John Adams Dix
Military District of Washington: James Samuel Wadsworth
Army of Virginia: John Pope
- I Corps Virginia: Robert Cumming Schenck temporary
- II Corps Virginia: Nathaniel Prentiss Banks
- III Corps Virginia: Irvin McDowell
Confederate Organisation
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: Vacant
Department of Alabama and West Florida: John Horace Forney temporary
Department of Middle and Eastern Florida: Joseph Finegan
Department of East Tennessee: Edmund Kirby Smith
- Army of East Tennessee: Edmund Kirby Smith
Department of Henrico: John Henry Winder
Department of North Carolina: James Green Martin
- District of Cape Fear: Samuel Gibbs French
- District of Pamlico: Robert Ransom temporary
- District of Roanoke Island: Henry Marchmore Shaw
Department of Northern Virginia: Robert Edward Lee
- District of Aquia: Gustavus Woodson Smith
- Army of Northern Virginia: Robert Edward Lee
- Longstreet’s Command Northern Virginia: James Longstreet
- Jackson’s Command Northern Virginia: Thomas Jonathan Jackson
- Magruder’s Command Northern Virginia: John Bankhead Magruder
- Valley District: 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
- 1st Sub-District of South Carolina: Arthur Middleton Manigault.
- 2nd Sub-District of South Carolina: Hugh Weedon Mercer
- 3rd Sub-District of South Carolina: William Stephen Walker
- 4th Sub-District of South Carolina: Thomas Fenwick Drayton
Department of Southwestern Virginia: William Wing Loring
- District of Abingdon: Humphrey Marshall
Trans-Mississippi Department: Paul Octave Hébert temporary
- District of Arkansas: Thomas Carmichael Hindman
- District of Eastern Texas and Western Louisiana: Paul Octave Hébert
- Sub-District of Houston: George M Flournoy
- Western District of Texas: Henry Eustace McCullough
- Eastern Sub-District of Western Texas: Xavier Blanchard Debray
- Sub-District of the Rio Grande: Hamilton Prioleau Bee
- Trans-Mississippi District: Thomas Carmichael Hindman
- District of Arizona: Henry Hopkins Sibley
- District of Indian Territory: Douglas Hancock Cooper
- Defences of Pass Cavallo: John W Glenn
Western Department: Braxton Bragg
- District of Southern Mississippi and Eastern Louisiana: Earl Van Dorn
- 1st Sub-District of Southern Mississippi and Eastern Louisiana: Daniel Ruggles
- 2nd Sub-District of Southern Mississippi and Eastern Louisiana: William Nelson Rector Beall
- 3rd Sub-District of Southern Mississippi and Eastern Louisiana: Martin Luther Smith
- Army of Mississippi: Braxton Bragg
- I Corps Mississippi: Leonidas Polk
- II Corps Mississippi: Samuel Jones
- III Corps Mississippi: William Joseph Hardee
- Reserve Corps Mississippi: John Cabell Breckinridge
- Army of the West: Dabney Herndon Maury temporary
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
John Ellis Wool
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
Lewis Wallace
Ormsby McKnight Mitchel
Cassius Marcellus Clay
George Henry Thomas
George Cadwalader
William Tecumseh Sherman
Edward Otho Cresap Ord
Edwin Vose Sumner*
Samuel Peter Heintzelman
Erasmus Darwin Keyes
Joseph Hooker
Silas Casey
Brigadier-General USA
Brackets indicates concurrently Major-General USV
William Selby Harney
(Edwin Vose Sumner)
Joseph King Fenno Mansfield
(Irvin McDowell)
Robert Anderson
(William Starke Rosecrans)
Philip St George Cooke
Brigadier-General USV
Andrew Porter
Fitz-John Porter
William Buel Franklin
Charles Pomeroy Stone
Thomas West Sherman
George Archibald McCall
William Reading Montgomery
Philip Kearny
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
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
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
Willis Arnold Gorman
Daniel Butterfield
Horatio Gouverneur Wright
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
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
Amiel Weeks Whipple
Cuvier Grover
George Lucas Hartsuff
Rufus Saxton
Benjamin Alvord
Napoleon Bonaparte Buford
William Sooy Smith
Nathan Kimball
Charles Devens
James Henry Van Alen
Carl Schurz
Samuel Wylie Crawford
Henry Walton Wessells
Milo Smith Hascall
Leonard Fulton Ross
John White Geary
Alfred Howe Terry
Andrew Atkinson Humphreys
James Henry Carleton
Absalom Baird
John Cleveland Robinson
Truman Seymour
George Dashiell Bayard
Henry Prince
Abram Sanders Piatt
Thomas Turpin Crittenden
Maximilian Weber
Pleasant Adam Hackleman
Jeremiah Cutler Sullivan
Alvin Peterson Hovey
James Clifford Veatch
William Plummer Benton
Henry Bohlen
John Curtis Caldwell
Isaac Peace Rodman
Neal S Dow
George Sears Greene
Samuel Powhatan Carter
John Gibbon
George William Taylor
Erastus Barnard Tyler
James Birdseye McPherson
Charles Griffin
George Henry Gordon
James Madison Tuttle
Julius White
Peter Joseph Osterhaus
Stephen Gano Burbridge
Washington Lafayette Elliott
Albion Parris Howe
Green Clay Smith
Brigadier-General USA (Staff)
Montgomery Cunningham Meigs (Quartermaster-General)
Henry Knox Craig
Lorenzo Thomas (Adjutant-General)
James Wolfe Ripley (Ordnance)
William Alexander Hammond (Surgeon-General)
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
Thomas Carmichael Hindman
John Cabell Breckinridge
Lafayette McLaws
Ambrose Powell Hill
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
Richard Heron Anderson
Robert Augustus Toombs
Arnold Elzey
William Henry Chase Whiting
Jubal Anderson Early
Isaac Ridgeway 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
Thomas Fenwick Drayton
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
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
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
Thomas Jordan
William Preston
Roger Atkinson Pryor
Henry Little
John Echols
George Earl Maney
Jean Jacques Alfred Alexandre Mouton
John Stuart Williams
James Green Martin
Thomas Lanier Clingman
Wade Hampton
Daniel Weisiger Adams
Louis Hébert
Samuel Garland
John Creed Moore
Ambrose Ransom Wright
James Lawson Kemper
James Jay Archer
George Burgwyn Anderson
Beverley Holcombe Robertson
American Civil War High Command 