March 3 1862 Monday
Fernandina, FL
New Madrid, MO
Burnside’s Expedition to North Carolina
Sibley’s Operations in New Mexico
New Madrid Campaign
Arkansas. Union reconnaissance to Berryville began.
Arkansas. Confederate Major-General Earl Van Dorn arrived in the Boston Mountains and took command of the combined state forces of Brigadier-General Benjamin McCulloch of Missouri and Missouri State Guard Major-General Sterling Price. The two Confederate commanders were in perpetual dispute and Van Dorn brought a new direction and purpose to the theatre. Van Dorn instructed Brigadier-General Albert Pike to move from the Indian Territory to Lawrence County, Missouri, with about 7,000 white and Indian troops. McCulloch was directed to take 18,000 mounted troops to Pocahontas while Price led 15,000 infantry to Springfield, Missouri. Van Dorn greatly over-estimated his available force and believed that he could take St Louis after combining the two columns at Ironton, Missouri. Van Dorn’s ambitious plans were disrupted when he learned that Price had already been driven out of Springfield on 12 February and was being pursued by Union Brigadier-Samuel Ryan Curtis’ Army of the Southwest. Price had taken refuge thirty miles from Van Buren, within supporting distance of McCulloch’s command. into the Boston Mountains. Van Dorn began his advance by ordering the army to prepare for a forced march in the morning to Cross Hollows, about twelve miles away, near Bentonville, where Curtis’ Army of the Southwest was encamped. Curtis had four divisions, two placed forward under Brigadier-General Franz Sigel and two more twelve miles back. The first objective of the Confederate march was Elm Springs, which they would reach on 5 March. McCulloch’s force led the column, followed by Price and then Pike’s Indian Brigade.
Fernandina. Florida. Union naval forces under Captain Samuel Francis Du Pont USN and troops under Brigadier-General Horatio Gouverneur Wright began operations to occupy Fernandina, Cumberland Island, Cumberland Sound, Amelia Island, and the river and town of St Mary’s. The Confederate defenders were in the process of withdrawing heavy guns inland from the area and offered only token resistance. Fort Clinch on Amelia Island was evacuated by the Confederates and occupied by an armed boat crew from USS Ottawa. This was the first pre-war constructed fort to be recaptured by Union forces. Commander Drayton, aboard USS Ottawa brought a railroad train under fire near Fernandina and chased it for a mile and a half before the passengers fled into the woods. Launches under Commander C R P Rodgers captured the steamer Darlington with a cargo of military stores. The Fernandina operation brought the entire Florida coast into the possession or under the influence of the Union Navy.
Kentucky. Incident at Columbus.
Kentucky. Occupation of Columbus.
Maryland. The Union V Corps was established in the Army of the Potomac under the command of Major-General Nathaniel Prentiss Banks, and with the two divisions of Brigadier-General Alpheus Starkey Williams and Brigadier-General James Shields. This force was stationed currently at Frederick with orders to operate in the Shenandoah Valley and did not participate in the forthcoming campaign on the Yorktown peninsula. In the summer, after a new V Corps was formed in the Army of the Potomac, this command was known as II Corps of the Army of Virginia, and then in the autumn of 1862, was designated as XII Corps of the Army of the Potomac.
New Madrid, Missouri. Union Brigadier-General John Pope’s Army of the Mississippi reached New Madrid with an army of 12,000 men, having marched through 50 miles of Missouri springtime mud in three days. Pope commenced regular siege operations to reduce the 50 heavy guns and to eradicate a small fleet of Confederate gunboats blocking the Mississippi. Pope discovered that five Confederate gunboats under the command of Commodore George Nichols Hollins supported the defenders of New Madrid. The river, typical of springtime stages, was nearly flooded out of its banks, allowing the heavy guns on board the boats to sweep the countryside for several thousand yards ahead of Pope’s army. Pope received valuable intelligence that the New Madrid garrison was so weak and small that he would not require a general assault to capture the position.
Missouri. The pro-Confederate Missouri legislature fled south from New Madrid, under the guard of State Brigadier-Genera. Meriwether Jefferson Thompson. Thompson refused to be trapped and captured in the beleaguered fortified camp at New Madrid.
New Mexico Territory. Confederate Brigadier-General Henry Hopkins Sibley’s column arrived at Cubero and skirmished with a small Union force. The Union troops were driven away and the Confederates captured some much-needed supplies in the town.
Virginia. Union troops occupied Martinsburg after a brief skirmish.
Virginia. Union Major-General George Brinton McClellan explained to his twelve divisional commanders his plans to advance on Richmond via the coastal route through Urbanna. When McClellan called together his divisional commanders to explain his plan, three of the four most senior officers (Brigadier-General Irvin McDowell, Brigadier-General Samuel Peter Heintzelman, and Brigadier-General Edwin Vose Sumner) opposed it as too risky. A fourth (Brigadier-General Erasmus Darwin Keyes) approved it only with conditions. The other eight endorsed the plan. The approval of this Council of War was communicated to the President, who nevertheless remained anxious for the security of the capital.
McClellan also announced a major reorganisation of the Army of the Potomac. He had hitherto resisted the formation of his divisions into Corps. McClellan preferred to retain divisions as the largest collection of troops in order to retain direct control. He had been uncertain about which officers would be confirmed in command of these large forces until they had been tested. He was also suspicious of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War which had proposed the imposition of a Corps structure. McClellan believed that his own preferred candidates would be overlooked in favour of officers more congenial to the radical Republicans who dominated the Committee and were putting increased pressure on McClellan to be more aggressive. Despite McClellan’s reluctance, Lincoln issued General War Order No 2 appointing four Corps commanders within the Army of the Potomac. These included three of those divisional commanders least confident about McClellan’s Urbanna plan.
McClellan saw these appointments as an unwarranted interference and as an attempt to undermine both his authority and his strategy. Banks was the only one of the new corps commanders who already held the grade of Major-General, which was appropriate for his semi-autonomous command in the Shenandoah Valley. The promotion of the others to the grade of Major-General did not come until March for McDowell, and May for Sumner, Heintzelman, and Keyes, reflecting the caution shown in filling these significant commands.
The I Corps of the Army of the Potomac was formed under Irvin McDowell to comprise the divisions of Brigadier-General William Buel Franklin, Brigadier-General George Archibald McCall, and Brigadier-General Rufus King. This force of nearly 30,000 men was intended to support the landings of the Army of the Potomac on the James River and York River by advancing overland from Fredericksburg towards Richmond.
The II Corps of the Army of the Potomac was formed under Edwin Vose Sumner with the two divisions of Brigadier-General Israel Bush Richardson and Brigadier-General John Sedgwick. The division of Brigadier-General Ludwig Blenker was named as the 3rd Division of II Corps but it never joined the others as it was operating in the Mountain Department and it took too long for it to be transported to join the other divisions on the James River.
The III Corps of the Army of the Potomac was formed under Samuel Peter Heintzelman, with the three divisions of Brigadier-General Fitz John Porter, Brigadier-General Joseph Hooker, and Heintzelman himself (his division was soon to be assigned to the firebrand Brigadier-General Philip Kearny).
The IV Corps of the Army of the Potomac was formed under Erasmus Darwin Keyes, with the three divisions of Brigadier-General Silas Casey, Brigadier-General Darius Nash Couch, and Brigadier-General William Farrar Smith.
In May, McClellan attempted to redress the supposed balance of loyalty among his corps commander by creating the Provisional V Corps and Provisional VI Corps. These would be assigned to two of the more supportive division commanders, Brigadier-General Fitz John Porter and Brigadier-General William Buel Franklin. Porter’s division was later transferred out of III Corps to become the nucleus of the new V Corps (Potomac). Smith’s division was later detached from IV Corps to join the new VI Corps (Potomac). While this expediency increased the number of Corps, it did not increase the number of divisions.
Union Organisation
USA: The area west of Flintstone Creek, Maryland, South Branch Mountain, North Shenandoah Mountain, Purgatory Mountain, Blue Ridge Mountain, and Allegheny Mountain were transferred from the Department of the Potomac to the Department of Western Virginia.
USA: I Corps (Potomac) was established in the Army of the Potomac.
USA: Brigadier-General Irvin McDowell assumed command of I Corps (Potomac).
USA: II Corps (Potomac) was established in the Army of the Potomac.
USA: Brigadier-General Edwin Vose Sumner assumed command of II Corps (Potomac).
USA: III Corps (Potomac) was established in the Army of the Potomac.
USA: Brigadier-General Samuel Peter Heintzelman assumed command of III Corps (Potomac).
USA: IV Corps (Potomac) was established in the Army of the Potomac.
USA: Brigadier-General Erasmus Darwin Keyes assumed command of IV Corps (Potomac).
USA: V Corps (Potomac) was established in the Army of the Potomac.
USA: Major-General Nathaniel Prentiss Banks assumed command of V Corps (Potomac).
USA: Joshua Thomas Owen commission as Brigadier-General USV 31 December 1862 to rank from 29 November 1862 expired unconfirmed 4 March 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
General–in-Chief: George Brinton McClellan
Department of Florida: Lewis Golding Arnold
Department of the Gulf: Benjamin Franklin Butler awaited
- Army of the Gulf: Benjamin Franklin Butler
Department of Kansas: David Hunter
Department of Key West: John Milton Brannan
Department of the Missouri: Henry Wager Halleck
- District of West Tennessee: Ulysses Simpson Grant
- Army of West Tennessee: Ulysses Simpson Grant
- District of Cairo: William Tecumseh Sherman
- District of the Mississippi: John Pope
- Army of the Mississippi: John Pope
- District of St Louis: John McAllister Schofield
- District of Central Missouri: James Totten
- District of North Missouri: John McAllister Schofield
- District of Southeast Missouri: Frederick Steele
- District of Southwest Missouri: Samuel Ryan Curtis
- Army of the Southwest: Samuel Ryan Curtis
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 Ohio: Don Carlos Buell
- Army of the Ohio: Don Carlos Buell
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
- District of Harper’s Ferry and Cumberland: James Shields
- 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
Department of Western Virginia: William Starke Rosecrans
- District of the Kanawha: Jacob Dolson Cox
- Cheat Mountain District: Robert Huston Milroy
- Railroad District: Benjamin Franklin Kelley
Confederate Organisation
CSA: John Bell Hood promoted Brigadier-General PACS 6 March 1862 to rank from 3 March 1862.
CSA: Daniel Marsh Frost promoted Brigadier-General PACS 10 October 1861 to rank from 3 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: Vacant
Department No 1: Mansfield Lovell
Department of Alabama and West Florida: Braxton Bragg
- Army of Pensacola: Samuel Jones
- Army of Mobile: John Bordenave Villepigue
Department of East Tennessee: Edmund Kirby Smith awaited
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
- 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: John Clifford Pemberton
- 5th 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
- First Geographical Division: Leonidas Polk
- Trans-Mississippi District: Earl Van Dorn
- District of North Alabama: Daniel Ruggles
- Army of Central Kentucky: Albert Sidney Johnston
- Army of Eastern Kentucky: Humphrey Marshall
- Army of the West: Benjamin McCulloch interim Earl Van Dorn awaited
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
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
Brigadier-General PACS
Alexander Robert Lawton
Benjamin McCulloch
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
Benjamin Franklin Cheatham
Daniel Harvey Hill
Jones Mitchell Withers
Richard Heron Anderson
Robert Augustus Toombs
Samuel Jones
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
John Porter McCown
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
James McQueen McIntosh
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
American Civil War High Command 