1862 March 12th

March 12 1862 Wednesday

New Bern Campaign
Sibley’s Operations in New Mexico
New Madrid Campaign
Kernstown Campaign

Go to March 13 1862

Alabama. Union gunboats USS Tyler (Lieutenant) and USS Lexington (Lieutenant Shirk) engaged a Con­federate battery at Chickasaw, while reconnoitring the Tennessee River.

Florida. A Union naval and military force from USS Ottawa (Lieutenant T H Stevens USN) occupied Jacksonville unopposed.

Kansas. Skirmish near Aubrey involving Colonel Robert H Graham (8th Kansas Infantry).

Missouri. Skirmishes near Lebanon and at Lexington.

Missouri. A siege artillery battery of three 24-pounder guns and one 8-inch howitzer arrived to reinforce Union Major-General John Pope’s army at New Madrid. They were emplaced in front of Fort Thompson and effectively closed the river to the unarmoured Confederate gunboats. They also prevented reinforcements from reaching the Confederate artillery companies at New Madrid.

North Carolina. Union Brigadier-General Ambrose Everett Burnside’s Coast Division of about 12,000 men got underway at Roanoke Island early in the morning, accompanied by fourteen ships including Navy gunboats, one Army gunboat, and transports, all commanded by Commander Stephen Clegg Rowan USN. One Navy vessel was detached to guard the mouth of the Pamlico River, where it was incorrectly rumoured that the Confederates were preparing two ships to cut off any transports that might become separated from Navy protection. The main force traversed Pamlico Sound, entered the Neuse River, and anchored near the mouth of Slocum’s Creek at dusk.
Confederate Brigadier-General Lawrence O’Bryan Branch was aware of the Union movement and immediately ordered his forces to take up defensive positions to defend New Bern. He sent Colonel James Sinclair’s 35^th North Carolina Infantry to the landing at Otter Creek, in front of the Croatan work, with instructions to oppose enemy landings at that site. Colonel Zebulon Vance’s 26^th North Carolina Infantry was ordered into the Croatan works. Other units guarded the river upstream, and reserves were assembled at the intersection of the railroad and the Beaufort road. All units were instructed that if they were forced from their positions, they should fall back on the Fort Thompson line.
The Union troops began to disembark at dawn. A small Confederate unit trying to contest the landing was quickly driven away by fire from the gunboats, as Colonel Sinclair interpreted narrowly his orders to defend against a landing at Otter Creek. Burnside spent the morning getting his men and equipment ashore. With the infantry came six boat howitzers and two Army howitzers. He decided to land his other artillery closer to the enemy lines because of the weather, but dense fog soon closed in and he could not communicate with the fleet. His remaining guns were not landed. A little after noon the Union soldiers began to move toward the Confederate lines and heavy rain began at about the same time. The road was soon turned into mud and the gunners were soon exhausted trying to move the artillery. A regiment of infantry (51^st Pennsylvania Infantry) was detailed to help in the arduous duty. As the Union soldiers made their slow progress, the gunboats kept a short distance ahead, shelling likely places where Confederates might be waiting.
Colonel R P Campbell, in command of the Confederate right wing, interpreted the naval gunfire as preliminary to another landing that would take the Croatan River fortification in reverse, so he ordered a general withdrawal to the Fort Thompson line. When the Union Coast Division came upon the first Confederate breastworks, they found them abandoned and resumed their march. Leaving the Croatan works behind, Union Brigadier-General John Gray Foster’s 1^st Brigade moved on the right following the county road, while Brigadier-General Jesse Lee Reno’s 2^nd Brigade followed the railroad on the left. Brigadier-General John Grubb Parke’s 3^rd Brigade followed the route of the 1^st Brigade. They continued until they came in contact with enemy pickets, about a mile and a half from the Fort Thompson line. With nightfall approaching, Burnside ordered a halt and had the brigades bivouac in the order of their march: 1^st Brigade on the right near the road, 2^nd Brigade on the left near the railroad, and 3^rd Brigade to the rear of the 1^st Brigade. The howitzers did not arrive until 3 am the next morning.

South Carolina. USS Gem of the Sea, Lieutenant Baxter, captured the British blockade-runner Fair Play off George­town.

Virginia. Incidents at Stephenson’s Depot and Winchester.

Virginia. Union Major-General Nathaniel Prentiss Banks occupied Winchester after its evacuation by Confederate Major-General Thomas Jonathan Jackson. He garrisoned the town with his 1st Division of 7,000 men under Brigadier-General Alpheus Starkey Williams (1/Banks/Potomac). Banks’ 2^nd Division under Brigadier-General James Shields was ordered to move onward to Strasburg with 9,000 men. Banks’ 3^rd Division under Brigadier-General John Sedgwick remained detached to hold Harper’s Ferry with 7,000 men. Jackson withdrew his Confederate army to Strasburg with the intention of heading south along the Valley Pike for a further 42 miles to Mount Jackson.

Union Organisation

USA: The District of Harper’s Ferry and Cumberland was discontinued.

USA: The Military District of Washington was established as an independent command reporting directly to the War Department, comprising the District of Columbia, Alexandria in Virginia, and Port Washington.
USA: Brigadier-General James Samuel Wadsworth assumed command of the Military District of Washington.

USA: The District of Northeast Missouri was established in the Department of the Mississippi, comprising the state of Missouri north of Randolph County and east of Linn County.
USA: Colonel John Montgomery Glover (3rd Missouri Cavalry) assumed command of the District of Northeast Missouri.

USA: The District of Northwest Missouri was established in the Department of the Missouri, comprising the state of Missouri north of the Missouri River and west of the eastern boundary of Linn County.
USA: Missouri State Brigadier-General Benjamin Franklin Loan assumed command of the District of Northwest Missouri.
Loan, Benjamin Franklin / Missouri / Born 14 October 1819 Hardinsburg, Kentucky / Died St Joseph, Missouri 30 March 1881
Brigadier-General Missouri Militia 27 November 1861 / Discharged Missouri Militia 8 June 1863
District of Northwest Missouri 12 March 1862-4 June 1862 / District of Central Missouri 25 August 1862-9 June 1863

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

Chairman of the War Board: Ethan Allen Hitchcock

Department of the Mississippi : Henry Wager Halleck awaited

• District of West Tennessee: Charles Ferguson Smith
  • Army of West Tennessee: Ulysses Simpson Grant
• District of the Mississippi: John Pope
  • Army of the Mississippi: John Pope
• Department of the Missouri: Henry Wager Halleck
  • District of St Louis: John McAllister Schofield
  • District of Central Missouri: James Totten
  • District of Southeast Missouri: Frederick Steele
  • District of Northeast Missouri: John Montgomery Glover
  • District of Northwest Missouri: Benjamin Franklin Loan
  • District of Southwest Missouri: Samuel Ryan Curtis
    • Army of the Southwest: Samuel Ryan Curtis
• Department of Kansas: David Hunter

Department of Florida: Lewis Golding Arnold

Department of the Gulf: Benjamin Franklin Butler awaited

• Army of the Gulf: Benjamin Franklin Butler

Department of Key West: John Milton Brannan

Mountain Department: William Starke Rosecrans interim John Charles Frémont awaited

• Cheat Mountain District: Robert Huston Milroy
• Railroad District: Benjamin Franklin Kelley
• District of the Kanawha: Jacob Dolson Cox
• District of the Cumberland: Robert Cumming Schenck
• District of the Gap: Samuel Powhatan Carter
• District of the Valley of the Big Sandy River: James Abram Garfield

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 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

• Army of the Potomac: George Brinton McClellan
  • I Corps Potomac: Irvin McDowell
  • II Corps Potomac: Edwin Vose Sumner
  • III Corps Potomac: Samuel Peter Heintzelman
  • IV Corps Potomac: Erasmus Darwin Keyes
  • V Corps Potomac: Nathaniel Prentiss Banks

Department of Texas: Vacant

Department of Virginia: John Ellis Wool

Military District of Washington: James Samuel Wadsworth

Confederate Organisation

CSA: Colonel William L Powell assumed temporary command of the Army of Mobile, succeeding Colonel John Bordenave Villepigue.

CSA: Dabney Herndon Maury promoted Brigadier-General PACS 14 March 1862 to rank from 12 March 1862.

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: Robert Edward Lee

Department No 1: Mansfield Lovell

Department of Alabama and West Florida: Braxton Bragg

• Army of Pensacola: Thomas Marshall Jones
• Army of Mobile: William L Powell

Department of East Tennessee: Edmund Kirby Smith

• Army of East Tennessee: Edmund Kirby Smith

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 McCulloch
• 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

• Trans-Mississippi District: Earl Van Dorn
• District of North Alabama: Daniel Ruggles
• Army of Mississippi: Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard awaited
  • First Grand Division (Mississippi): Leonidas Polk
  • Second Grand Division (Mississippi): Braxton Bragg
  • Reserve Corps (Mississippi): George Bibb Crittenden
• Army of Central Kentucky: Albert Sidney Johnston
• Army of the West: Earl Van Dorn

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
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
Andrew Johnson
James Gallant Spears
Eugene Asa Carr
Thomas Alfred Davies

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
Sterling Price
Benjamin Franklin Cheatham
Samuel Jones
John Porter McCown

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
Samuel Read Anderson
Daniel Harvey Hill
Jones Mitchell Withers
Richard Heron Anderson
Robert Augustus Toombs
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
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
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
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