1862 March 13th

March 13 1862 Thursday

New Madrid, MO

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

Go to March 14 1862

USA. An additional Article of War was approved by the US Congress, forbidding all officers and soldiers of the US Army from aiding in the capture and return of fugitive slaves to their disloyal owners in Virginia. This was a reversal of previous instructions to comply with existing laws about the return of fugitive slaves.

Arkansas. Action at Spring River.

Mississippi. Union Commander David Dixon Porter USN reported the arrival of the mortar flotilla at Ship Island. The vessels had been fitted out and left New York on 26 February 1862.

New Madrid, Missouri. Confederate Major-General John Porter McCown’s garrison was holding the fortifications at New Madrid and Island No 10 against a naval and land siege directed by Union Brigadier-General John Pope’s Army of the Mississippi. Pope had been in position for ten days awaiting siege artillery and equipment and digging parallels.
Pope’s efforts to persuade Captain Andrew Foote USN to attack the forts with his ironclad gunboats were persistently rebuffed as Foote felt his ships were too damaged to commit them confidently in another dangerous action. After being placed in position overnight, the Union heavy artillery exchanged artillery fire in earnest. A day-long artillery duel ensued and total losses on both sides exceeded 100 killed and wounded. The Union gunners dismounted two heavy guns in Fort Thompson and scored several direct hits on the Confederate gunboats. In reply, the defenders managed to shoot an 8-inch ball directly into the muzzle of one of the besieging 24 pounders.
Pope ordered a surprise infantry assault on Fort Bankhead by Brigadier-General John McAuley Palmer’s 5^th Division, but the Confederates discovered the plan and trained their big guns on the vulnerable attackers. Palmer approached to within a mile of the fort and then refused to order the assault because the enemy was ready to stop it. Pope acquiesced to Palmer’s decision. McCown launched a sortie against the besiegers led by State Brigadier-General Meriwether Jefferson Thompson (Missouri State Guard). He also brought up heavy artillery to bombard the Union infantry.
In the evening, Confederate Brigadier-General Alexander Peter Stewart, McCown, and Commodore George Nichols Hollins CSN met aboard the CSS McRae and concluded that the situation at New Madrid was now hopeless. Within hours of the meeting, under the cover of a terrific spring thunderstorm, the Confederates evacuated New Madrid and crossed over to the opposite bank of the River under cover of Hollins’ gunboat squadron of CSS Livingston, CSS Polk, and CSS Pontchartrain. The evacuation was incompetently handled. There were too few transports, the heavy guns were not spiked, the caissons and limbers from the field pieces had to be thrown overboard from the transports, pickets were left behind in the trenches, and dead bodies were left unburied. The Union besiegers watched the movements of the enemy transports all night long but could not determine whether they were conducting an evacuation or bringing in supplies or reinforcements. The Confederate gunboats and troops were evacuated to Island No 10 and Tiptonville.

ORDER OF BATTLE: NEW MADRID, MO

Union Department (Military Division) of the Mississippi: Major-General Henry Wager Halleck
Department of the Missouri: Major-General Henry Wager Halleck
District of the Mississippi: Brigadier-General John Pope
Army of the Mississippi: Brigadier-General John Pope
1^st Division, (Mississippi): Brigadier-General David Sloan Stanley
1^st Brigade, 1^st Division (Mississippi): Colonel John Groesbeck
2^nd Brigade, 1^st Division (Mississippi): Colonel J L Kirby Smith
2^nd Division, (Mississippi): Brigadier-General Schuyler Hamilton
1^st Brigade, 2^nd Division (Mississippi): Colonel William H Worthington
2^nd Brigade, 2^nd Division (Mississippi): Colonel Nicholas Preczel
3^rd Division, (Mississippi): Brigadier-General John McAuley Palmer
1^st Brigade, 3^rd Division (Mississippi): Colonel James R Slack
2^nd Brigade, 3^rd Division (Mississippi): Colonel Graham N Fitch
4^th Division, (Mississippi): Brigadier-General Eleazar Arthur Paine
1^st Brigade, 4^th Division (Mississippi): Colonel James D Morgan
2^nd Brigade, 4^th Division (Mississippi): Colonel Gilbert W Cumming
5^th Division, (Mississippi): Brigadier-General Joseph Benton Plummer
1^st Brigade, 5th Division (Mississippi): Colonel John Bryner
2^nd Brigade, 5^th Division (Mississippi): Colonel John M Loomis
Cavalry Division (Mississippi): Colonel Gordon Granger
Marine Brigade (Mississippi): Colonel Napoleon Bonaparte Buford
Western Gunboat Flotilla: Flag Officer Andrew Hull Foote USN
USS Benton, USS Mound City, USS Carondelet, USS Cincinnati, USS St Louis, USS Pittsburg

Confederate Western Department: General Albert Sidney Johnston
First Geographical Division (Western): Major-General Leonidas Polk
New Madrid and Island No 10 (Western): Brigadier-General John Porter McCown
Gantt’s Brigade New Madrid and Island No 10 (Western): Colonel E W Gantt
Neely’s Brigade New Madrid and Island No 10 (Western): Colonel R P Neely
Marks’ Brigade: New Madrid and Island No 10 (Western) Colonel S F Marks
Stewart’s Brigade, New Madrid and Island No 10 (Western): Brigadier General Alexander Peter Stewart
Gunboat Fleet: Flag Officer George Nichols Hollins CSN
CSS Livingston, CSS Polk, CSS Pontchartrain and two others

North Carolina. Union Brigadier-General Ambrose Everett Burnside’s fleet sailed up the Neuse River in North Carolina and disembarked infantry on the river’s south bank in order to approach the defences of New Bern.

Tennessee. The Beech Creek Bridge on the Mobile & Ohio Railroad was destroyed.

Tennessee. Union Major-General Henry Wager Halleck, increasingly anxious and annoyed by the absence of reports from Major-General Ulysses Simpson Grant at Nashville, had been taking steps for nearly two weeks to achieve Grant’s removal from command and his replacement by Brigadier-General Charles Ferguson Smith. Subsequent investigations found that a telegraph operator had been responsible for the unprecedented silence. The signaller defected to the Confederacy, taking all Grant’s dispatches with him, and Grant escaped censure. Grant responded vigorously to Halleck’s accusations of mishandling property. Having attained overall command in the Western theatre Halleck backed down in his efforts to supplant his rival, who was the only officer under his command far to have delivered a truly unquestionable victory. Grant boarded a ship at Fort Henry to rejoin the Army for the next phase of the advance up the Tennessee River.

Virginia. Incident at Smithfield.

Virginia. The Union Army of the Potomac was formally divided into five Army Corps by the direction of the War Department.
The I Corps was formed under Major-General Irvin McDowell. It had three divisions under Brigadier-General William Buel Franklin, Brigadier-General George Archibald McCall, and Brigadier-General Rufus King, with about 30,000 men.
The II Corps was formed under Major-General Edwin Vose Sumner. It had three divisions nominally but only two divisions under Brigadier-General Israel Bush Richardson and Brigadier-General John Sedgwick operated together. The 3^rd Division of Brigadier-General Louis Blenker was assigned but never joined because it was already engaged in western Virginia and could not be released.
The III Corps was formed under Major-General Samuel Peter Heintzelman. It was made up of troops in Heintzelman’s former command, Brigadier-General Fitz John Porter’s and Brigadier-General Joseph Hooker’s divisions.
The IV Corps was formed under Brigadier-General Erasmus Darwin Keyes. It comprised the divisions of Brigadier-General Darius Nash Couch, Brigadier-General William Farrar Smith, and Brigadier-General Silas Casey.
The V Corps was formed under Major-General Nathaniel Prentiss Banks. It comprised the divisions of Brigadier-General Alpheus Starkey Williams and Brigadier-General James Shields. This command operated semi-autonomously in the Shenandoah Valley.

Virginia. Union Major-General George Brinton McClellan consulted his four Corps commanders at Washington, DC, (Major-General Nathaniel Prentiss Banks of V Corps was in the Shenandoah Valley), about his plans to make his advance along the York-James Peninsula. He described his intention to land the army at Mobjack Bay and Fortress Monroe. The four agreed with the plan on four conditions being met: the neutralisation of the ironclad CSS Virginia, the provision of sufficient water transportation, the silencing of the enemy’s coastal batteries on the York River by the Navy, and the allocation of sufficient troops to protect the capital > The latter requirement was variously estimated at around 40,000 men. After McClellan and his key subordinates accepted the validity of the plan with these conditions, President Abraham Lincoln raised no objections.

Union Organisation

USA: Major-General Henry Wager Halleck arrived to command the Department (Military Division) of the Mississippi

USA: Daniel Tyler promoted Brigadier-General USV 16 March 1862 to rank from 13 March 1862.

USA: Brigadier-General Daniel Edgar Sickles’ appointment as Brigadier-General expired.

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

• 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
• Army of the Ohio: Don Carlos Buell
• 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: The Army of Pensacola was discontinued and its forces transferred to the Army of Mississippi or the Army of Mobile.

CSA: John Bordenave Villepigue promoted Brigadier-General PACS 14 March 1862 to rank from 13 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 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 EXP
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
Daniel Tyler

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
John Bordenave Villepigue