March 28 1862 Friday
Battle of Glorieta Pass, NMT (CWSAC Decisive Battle Union Victory)
Bealeton Station, VA
Burnside’s Expedition to North Carolina
Peninsula Campaign
Island No 10 Campaign
Sibley’s Operations in New Mexico
Florida. Union Lieutenant Stevens returned to Jacksonville with a launch and cutter from USS Wabash and the steamers USS Darlington and Ellen after raising the yacht America which had been found sunk by the Confederates earlier in the month far up St John’s River.
Georgia. Union reconnaissance to the mouth of St Augustine Creek.
Louisiana. Union Commander Henry H Bell reconnoitred the Mississippi River as far as Fort Jackson and Fort St Philip USS Kennebec. The aim was to inform the plans for the passage of the forts. He reported the long range of two guns at Fort St Philip and obstructions consisting of a raft of logs and eight hulks moored abreast across the river below Fort St Philip.
Missouri. Expedition to Moniteau County ended.
Missouri. Incident at Warrensburg.
Glorieta Pass, New Mexico Territory, also known as Glorieta Canyon, Glorietta, Gloriette, or Pigeon’s Ranch. Confederate Colonel William Read Scurry and Union Colonel John Potts Slough both decided to attack and set out early from opposite ends of Apache Canyon to do so. Expecting the Confederates to remain in Apache Canyon, Slough sent Major John Milton Chivington from the camp at La Joya with the same 400-strong force that he had led at Apache Canyon in a circling movement with orders to hide at Glorieta Pass. Chivington would emerge to hit the Texans in the flank once Slough’s main force had engaged their front.
Chivington did as ordered and his men waited above the Pass for Slough and the enemy to arrive. However, instead of remaining at Apache Canyon as Slough, Scurry advanced down the Canyon more rapidly than anticipated. Scurry believed that the Union force was retreating back to Fort Union so he intended to attack them and pin them down until Colonel Thomas Green arrived. One gun and a small detail were left behind at Johnson’s Ranch, while the rest of the Confederate force of more than a thousand men, marched eastwards along the Sante Fe trail.
When Slough found the Texans probing so far forward, he launched an attack around 11 am about a half mile from Pigeon’s Ranch in Glorieta Pass. A provisional battalion of four companies from the 1st Colorado Infantry under Union Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Tappan, supported by two batteries, deployed across the trail. The Confederates dismounted and deployed in a line across the canyon but the terrain caused some of their companies to become intermingled. Tappan was successful in holding his ground for a half-hour but the Confederates’ numerical superiority enabled them to outflank the Union line by noon. Slough reformed his men a few hundred yards closer to Pigeon’s Ranch, with four companies under Tappan and an artillery battery on a hill to the left, the other battery supported by two companies in the centre across the road, and the other two companies on the ridge to the right.
Scurry then launched a three-pronged attack on the Union line: Pyron and Major Henry Raguet were ordered to attack the Union right, Major John Shropshire the Union left, with the remainder of the Confederate force under himself attacking the Union centre, supported by the artillery. The attack on the Union left was routed, with Shropshire killed, and the attack in the centre stalled. The artillery was forced to withdraw after one gun was disabled and a limber destroyed.
The Confederate attack broke down until at around 3 pm they managed to outflank the Union right, where Raguet was mortally wounded. From the ridge (known after the battle as “Sharpshooters Ridge”), the Confederates started to pick off the Union artillerymen and infantry below them, while Scurry started to press the Union centre again. This made the Union position untenable, forcing Slough to order a retreat. Tappan organised the companies on the left flank into a rear guard. Slough then reformed his line a half-mile east of Pigeon’s Ranch, where both sides skirmished until dusk. Slough retreated back to Kozlowski’s Ranch, leaving Scurry in possession of the field.
However, the situation was reversed when news was received of the destruction of the Confederate supply train at Johnson’s Ranch. With no supplies left to sustain his advance and having lost many of his horses, Scurry had to forget his temporary victory at Glorieta and retreat hurriedly back to Santa Fe, the first step of a weary retreat all the way to San Antonio, Texas.
The Union victors were instructed not to pursue them towards Santa Fe but were pulled back to Fort Union after incorrect reports were received that another Confederate advance was approaching that vital point from Texas.
The Confederates lost 123 men and the Union reported 86 casualties. (CWSAC Decisive Battle Union Victory)
Apache Canyon, New Mexico Territory, also known as Johnson’s Ranch. After the fighting at Glorieta Pass, the leader of the Union New Mexican volunteers, Lieutenant-Colonel Manuel Chaves of the 2nd New Mexico Infantry, informed Colonel John Milton Chivington that his scouts had detected the Confederate supply train nearby at Johnson’s Ranch. After observing them for an hour, Chivington’s force of 300 Coloradans descended the slope and attacked, routing or capturing the small baggage guard with few casualties on either side. They then looted and set afire eighty to eighty-five laden supply wagons and spiked the lone gun. They either killed or drove off five or six hundred horses and mules before returning back to Kozlowski’s Ranch.
Tennessee. Expedition to Manchester, Murfreesboro, Shelbyville, and Tullahoma ended. Expedition to Scott County and Morgan County.
Tennessee. The Union operation against Cumberland Gap began. Brigadier-General George Washington Morgan was ordered to advance to the vital pass with the 7th Brigade of the Army of the Ohio.
Tennessee. Confederate Major-General Edmund Kirby Smith began operations in Scott County and Morgan County.
Tennessee. The Union Army of the Ohio under Major-General Don Carlos Buell crossed the Duck River on its way to join the Army of West Tennessee at Pittsburg Landing. Floods had delayed the crossing for ten days and kept the two armies dangerously separated.
Virginia. Operation on Orange & Alexandria Railroad began.
Virginia. Skirmish at Rappahannock Station.
Bealeton Station, Virginia. A reconnaissance in force was made by Brigadier-General Oliver Otis Howard’s brigade (1/1/II) and part of Brigadier-General Thomas Francis Meagher’s brigade (2/1/II: 5th New Hampshire Infantry, 61st New York Infantry, 8th Illinois Infantry, and attachments). The Confederates withdrew and burned the bridge across the Rappahannock at Bealeton Station. Two brigades from Confederate Major-General Richard Stoddert Ewell’s division were driven from the riverbanks overlooking the bridge by Union artillery.
Virginia. Union Brigadier-General Oliver Otis Howard occupied Shipping Point with his brigade (1/1/II/Potomac).
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
Chairman of the War Board: Ethan Allen Hitchcock
Department of the Mississippi: Henry Wager Halleck
- District of West Tennessee: Ulysses Simpson Grant
- Army of West Tennessee: Ulysses Simpson Grant
- District of the Mississippi: John Pope
- Army of the Mississippi: John Pope
- District of the Ohio: Don Carlos Buell
- Army of the Ohio: Don Carlos Buell
- District of Cairo: William Kerley Strong
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 Southwest Missouri: Samuel Ryan Curtis
- Army of the Southwest: Samuel Ryan Curtis
- District of Northeast Missouri: John Montgomery Glover
- District of Northwest Missouri: Benjamin Franklin Loan
- District of Kansas: James William Denver awaited
Department of the Gulf: Benjamin Franklin Butler
- Army of the Gulf: Benjamin Franklin Butler
Middle Department: John Adams Dix
- District of the Eastern Shore of Maryland: Henry Hayes Lockwood
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
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: 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 interim William Scott Dilworth temporary awaited
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: Theophilus Hunter Holmes
- District of Cape Fear: Samuel Gibbs French
- District of Pamlico: Robert Ransom temporary
- District of Roanoke Island: Henry Marchmore Shaw
Department of Northern Virginia: Joseph Eggleston Johnston
- District of Aquia: Gustavus Woodson Smith
- 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
- 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: Roswell Sabine Ripley
- 3rd Sub-District of South Carolina: Nathan George Evans
- 4th Sub-District of South Carolina: Maxcy Gregg
- 5th Sub-District of South Carolina: Daniel Smith Donelson
- 6th 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 McCullough
- 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
- 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*
Ambrose Everett Burnside
William Starke Rosecrans*
Don Carlos Buell
John Pope
Samuel Ryan Curtis
Franz Sigel
John Alexander McClernand
Charles Ferguson Smith
Lewis Wallace
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
Thomas West Sherman
George Archibald McCall
William Reading Montgomery
Philip Kearny
Joseph Hooker
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
George Henry Thomas
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
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
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
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
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
William Hervey Lamm Wallace
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
Grenville Mellen Dodge
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
Daniel Harvey 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
Samuel Read Anderson
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
John Selden Roane
States Rights Gist
William Nelson Pendleton
Martin Luther Smith
American Civil War High Command 