1862 March 4th

March 4 1862 Tuesday

Columbus, KY

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

Florida. US Marines landed from USS Pawnee and occupied the strategically valuable port of Fernandina.

Florida. Union forces occupied Amelia Island near Fernandina.

Florida. Commander Daniel B Ridgely, USS Santiago de Cuba, reported the capture of the sloop OK off Cedar Keys. The OK foundered in heavy seas on its way to St Mary’s.

Kentucky. Governor Isham G Harris fled the state of Kentucky.

Kentucky: Union Brigadier-General (and Senator) Andrew Johnson was appointed Military Governor of Kentucky. He was given the military rank to enhance his powers as Military Governor.

Columbus, Kentucky. Union forces covered by Captain Andrew Hull Foote’s gunboat flotilla drove down the Mississippi and prepared to attack the strongly fortified town of Columbus with seven ironclad gunboats. Foote’s naval forces had undergone some repairs and refitting at Cairo, Illinois, after sustaining damage at Fort Donelson. USS Louisville was soon forced to turn back for further repairs and did not take part.
On arrival, Foote found that the Confederates had already evacuated the fortified town and he reported that a reconnaissance by USS Cincinnati and USS Louisville two days earlier may have hastened the evacuation. The Confederates abandoned a number of guns and carriages, ammunition, and devices intended to obstruct the river. The powerful defences, described as the “Gibraltar of the West”, fell without a fight. Two officers and thirty men who went ashore in a tug discovered that the fort had been occupied since the day before by four companies of Illinois cavalry. Foote remained at Columbus for three days, carrying out further running repairs to his ships before setting out for the next enemy strongpoint: Island No 10.
Foote reported that a reconnaissance by USS Cincinnati and USS Louisville two days earlier had hastened the evacuation, forcing the Confederates to abandon a number of guns and carriages, ammunition, shot and shell, anchors, the remnant of a chain stretched across the river, and a large number of torpedoes. Union Brigadier-General George Washington Cullum was sent with troops to occupy the fortified town.

Missouri. Reconnaissance to Douglass County, Laclede County, and Wright County began.

Missouri. Incident at New Madrid.

Missouri. Union forces in Missouri had effectively pushed Confederate forces under Missouri State Guard Major-General Sterling Price out of the state and Union Brigadier-General Samuel Ryan Curtis determined to pursue the Confederates further into Arkansas with his Army of the Southwest. Curtis moved approximately 10,250 Union soldiers and 49 or 50 artillery pieces into Benton County along a small stream called Sugar Creek, near the Missouri border. Over half of the Union soldiers were German immigrants; the regiments with these soldiers were grouped into the combined 1^st and 2^nd Division, under the command of Brigadier General Franz Sigel. The other regiments were assigned to the 3^rd and 4^th Divisions to create an ethnic balance among divisions and division commanders. Curtis found an excellent defensive position on the north side of the creek and proceeded to fortify it and emplaced artillery to meet an expected Confederate assault. Reports were received from his scouts, including “Wild Bill” Hickok that the Confederates were marching northwards. He ordered Brigadier-General Franz Sigel to fall back with his two divisions to join Curtis’ other two divisions at Sugar Creek.
Confederate Major-General Earl Van Dorn’s Army of the West counted approximately 16,000 to 17,000 men, including 800 Cherokee Indians, contingents from the Missouri State Guard, and other Missouri units transferred into Confederate service, as well as Confederate cavalry, infantry, and artillery numbering sixty guns from Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Missouri. Van Dorn was aware of the Union threat to Arkansas and was intent on destroying Curtis’ Army of the Southwest in order to reopen the gateway back into Missouri.
Van Dorn did not wish to attack Curtis’ entrenched position at Sugar Creek head so he began a forced march around Curtis’ flank to attack the Union army from the rear. This would result either in Curtis retreating northwards or in the encirclement and destruction of the Union army. Van Dorn split his army into two divisions under State Major-General Sterling Price (about 10,000 men) and Brigadier-General Benjamin McCulloch (6,800 men) and ordered them to march north along the Bentonville Detour with the hopes of getting behind Curtis and cutting off his lines of communication. Van Dorn left his supply trains behind in order to make better speed. He arrived to take field command, joining Price’s column on its long outflanking march, while McCulloch and Brigadier-General Albert Pike moved directly towards Curtis’ men.

New Mexico Territory. The Union supply depot of Santa Fe was partly evacuated and the remainder destroyed to prevent it falling into the hands of the Confederate Army of New Mexico under Brigadier-General Henry Hopkins Sibley, which was approaching from the south. A brief skirmish forced the local Union troops under Captain Henry M Enos to withdraw to Fort Union, sixty miles northeast of Santa Fe and beyond the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The supply depot at Albuquerque was later destroyed to prevent capture on 23 March 1862.

Virginia. Incident at Williamsburg.

Union Organisation

USA: Andrew Johnson promoted Brigadier-General USV 4 March 1862.

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: Major-General Earl Van Dorn arrived to command the Army of the West, succeeding Brigadier-General Benjamin McCulloch.

CSA: Winfield Scott Featherston promoted Brigadier-General PACS 5 March 1862 to rank from 4 March 1862.

CSA: Thomas James Churchill promoted Brigadier-General PACS 5 March 1862 to rank from 4 March 1862.

CSA: William Booth Taliaferro promoted Brigadier-General PACS 6 March 1862 to rank from 4 March 1862.

CSA: Albert Rust promoted Brigadier-General PACS 6 March 1862 to rank from 4 March 1862.

CSA: Patrick Ronayne Cleburne promoted Brigadier-General PACS 5 March 1862 to rank from 4 March 1862.

CSA: Samuel Bell Maxey promoted Brigadier-General PACS 7 March 1862 to rank from 4 March 1862.

CSA: Hamilton Prioleau Bee promoted Brigadier-General PACS 6 March 1862 to rank from 4 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
- 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 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: 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

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
Winfield Scott Featherston
Thomas James Churchill
William Booth Taliaferro
Albert Rust
Patrick Ronayne Cleburne
Samuel Bell Maxey
Hamilton Prioleau Bee