1862 March 15th

March 15 1862 Saturday

Burnside’s Expedition to North Carolina
Sibley’s Operations in New Mexico
Kernstown Campaign

Go to March 16 1862

Arkansas. The scattered remnants of Confederate Major-General Earl Van Dorn’s army began to reach Van Buren after retreating from their defeat at Pea Ridge.

Missouri. Skirmish at Marshall.

Missouri. Skirmish at Island No 10.

Missouri. A US Navy flotilla under the command of Captain Andrew Hull Foote USN left Hickman, Kentucky, and arrived at New Madrid in the early morning. The ships strengthened Brigadier-General John Pope’s Army of the Mississippi for its operations against Island No 10. The flotilla included seven ironclad gunboats, among them the massive USS Benton, and ten mortar rafts each mounting one 13-inch seacoast mortar. The flotilla carried a total of 95 heavy guns. The flotilla made a brief stop at Bird’s Point to pick up Colonel Napoleon Bonaparte Buford’s brigade of infantry to support the fleet. Dense fog prevented the vessels from immediately moving into position to begin a bombardment of Island No 10’s defences,

North Carolina. Despite capturing New Bern, Union Major-General Ambrose Everett Burnside could not use the ports at Beaufort and Morehead City while Fort Macon remained in Confederate hands. He ordered Brigadier-General John Grubb Parke, commanding the 3^rd Brigade of the Coast Division, to reduce the fort. Parke began by seizing the towns along the inner shore of the North Carolina Sound.

South Carolina. The Union army and Navy had secured control of Port Royal Sound and this provided a base for maritime operations along the coast of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. It also provided a base for troops to be landed for future actions against coastal forts and ports, such as Charleston. The new Department of the South was established to control the Army operations in this region. The existing Department of Florida and Department of Key West, which had hitherto controlled the garrisons of forts along the periphery of the Florida coast, could now be discontinued and converted to Districts of the new Department. Union Brigadier-General Thomas West Sherman had led the initial landings and secured the area for the army. Major-General David Hunter was now assigned to increase Union activity along the Southern coasts.

Tennessee. Confederate Captain John Hunt Morgan began operations around Gallatin.

Virginia. The Union V Corps was operating independently from the Army of the Potomac in the Shenandoah Valley under the command of Major-General Nathaniel Prentiss Banks. Its two divisions were commanded by Brigadier-General Alpheus Starkey Williams and Brigadier-General James Shields. The V Corps was held in the Shenandoah Valley as part of the requirement to provide ample forces to defend Washington, DC, while the bulk of the Army of the Potomac shifted its operations to the Yorktown Peninsula.

Union Organisation

USA: The Department of Key West was discontinued and incorporated into the Department of the South.
USA: The Department of the South was established with headquarters at Hilton Head, South Carolina, comprising Florida, South Carolina, and Georgia.
USA: Major-General David Hunter was appointed to command the Department of the South, arriving on 31 March 1862.

USA: Brigadier-General Thomas West Sherman assumed temporary command of the Department of the South.

USA: The Department of Florida was discontinued and its area was incorporated into the Western District of the Department of the South.
USA: The Western District was established in the Department of the South, comprising the area in Florida west of a line due north of Cedar Keys.
USA: Brigadier-General Lewis Golding Arnold assumed command of the Western District of the Department of the South.

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 the Gulf: Benjamin Franklin Butler awaited

• Army of the Gulf: Benjamin Franklin Butler

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 the South: Thomas West Sherman temporary David Hunter awaited

• Western District of the South: Lewis Golding Arnold

Department of Texas: Vacant

Department of Virginia: John Ellis Wool

Military District of Washington: James Samuel Wadsworth

Confederate Organisation

CSA: Brigadier-General Joseph Reid Anderson was appointed to command the Department of North Carolina, arriving on 19 March 1862, to succeed Brigadier-General Richard Caswell Gatlin.

CSA: Brigadier-General Samuel Gibbs French was appointed to command the District of Cape Fear, arriving on 22 March 1862, to succeed Brigadier-General Joseph Reid Anderson.

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 Middle and Eastern Florida: James Heyward Trapier

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 interim Joseph Reid Anderson awaited

• District of Cape Fear: Joseph Reid Anderson interim  Samuel Gibbs French awaited
• 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 Northern Virginia: Joseph Eggleston Johnston
  • Right Wing Northern Virginia: James Longstreet
  • Left Wing Northern Virginia: Gustavus Woodson Smith
  • Centre Wing Northern Virginia: Daniel Harvey Hill
• 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 and Georgia: John Clifford Pemberton awaited

• 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

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*

Brigadier-General USA

Brackets indicates concurrently Major-General USV

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
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
Henry Eustace McCullough
John Stevens Bowen
Benjamin Hardin Helm