May 27 1862 Tuesday
Battle of Hanover Court House, VA (CWSAC Formative Battle Union Victory)
Harper’s Ferry, VA
Peninsula Campaign
First Corinth Campaign
Jackson‘s Shenandoah Valley Campaign
Arkansas. Expedition from Searcy Landing to Bayou Des Arc, Searcy, and West Point.
Arkansas. Skirmish with the Union forage train at Big Indian Creek near Searcy Landing.
Mississippi. Skirmish near Bridge Creek near Corinth.
Missouri. Skirmish at Monagan Springs near Osceola.
North Carolina. Expedition to Edenton began.
South Carolina. USS Bienville, Commander James Robert Madison Mullany, seized the blockade-running British steamer Patras off Bull’s Island. The ship was on its way from Havana with a cargo of powder and arms.
South Carolina. USS Santiago de Cuba, Commander Daniel Bowly Ridgely, captured the schooner Lucy C Holmes off Charleston with a cargo of cotton.
Virginia. Reconnaissance to Seven Pines ended.
Virginia. Skirmishes at White Oaks and Garnett’s Farm.
Virginia. Operation at Hanover Court House began.
Virginia. Skirmish at Slash Church.
Virginia. Expedition to Norfolk began.
Virginia. Skirmish at Loudoun Heights near Harper’s Ferry.
Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. Confederate Major-General Thomas Jonathan Jackson’s force demonstrated in front of the Union garrison at Harpers Ferry. Despite the growing threat to his rear, he had allowed a rest day and then moved his infantry to Charles Town while his cavalry was sent through Martinsburg to the crossing of the Potomac River at Williamsport. Scouts also probed the Union defences at Loudoun Heights.
Hanover Court House, Virginia, also known as Slash Church, Peake’s Station or Kinney’s Farm. Union Brigadier-General Fitz-John Porter’s V Corps had extended its lines northwards to protect the right flank of McClellan’s Union Army of the Potomac. The army now straddled the Chickahominy River with V Corps detached on the northern side.
Porter was ordered to drive off the Confederates reported to be located at Hanover Court House twelve miles away, in order to cut the railroad and to open the Telegraph Road for Union reinforcements under Major-General Irvin McDowell to arrive as they marched southwards from Fredericksburg. The advance to Hanover would also help to secure the right flank and rear of the Army of the Potomac.
Porter set out at 4 am with about 12,000 men from Brigadier-General George Webb Morell’s 1st Division (1st Brigade under Brigadier-General John Henry Martindale, 2nd Brigade under Colonel Charles Griffin, and 3rd Brigade under Brigadier-General Daniel Butterfield), The expedition was strengthened by a small brigade under Colonel Gouverneur Kemble Warren (3/2/V) and a mixed brigade of cavalry and artillery under Brigadier-General William Hemsley Emory.
The Confederate force near Hanover Court House numbered 4,000 to 4,500 men, led by Colonel Lawrence O’Bryan Branch, and included the 18th North Carolina Infantry, 28th North Carolina Infantry, 38th North Carolina Infantry, and the 45th Georgia. They had departed from their interim positions at Gordonsville in order to guard the Virginia Central Railroad nearer Richmond. They took up a position at Peake’s Crossing near Slash Church, four miles southwest of Hanover Court House. Another Confederate brigade was stationed ten miles north at Hanover Junction but was too distant for immediate support.
Contact was made at about noon at Peake’s Station four miles south of Hanover, near the Lebanon Church. The Union 25th New York Infantry and Colonel Hiram Berdan’s 1st US Sharpshooters preceded the advance as skirmishers and then the rest of the Union force was called forward. The New Yorkers and the Sharpshooters skirmished briskly with the Confederate 28th North Carolina under Colonel James Henry Lane at Thomas H Kinney’s house. Porter’s main body soon arrived and drove the outnumbered Confederates up the road towards the Court House. Porter set out in pursuit with most of his force, leaving three regiments (the 2nd Maine Infantry, 44th New York Infantry, and 25th New York Infantry, under Martindale, to guard the New Bridge and Hanover Court House Roads intersection, a mile to the west of Kinney’s farm.
This movement exposed Martindale’s force, at the rear of Porter’s command, to an attack by the bulk of Branch’s force, which Porter had mistakenly assumed was at Hanover Court House. Branch underestimated his opponent’s numbers and attacked. Colonel Charles C Lee led forward his own 37th North Carolina along with the 18th North Carolina and two guns from Latham’s Battery. The initial assault was repulsed but Martindale’s force was reduced severely by the heavy fire. When messengers reached Porter with news of the engagement, he quickly dispatched the 9th Massachusetts Infantry and 62nd Pennsylvania Infantry to hurry back to the Kinney Farm. The rest of the division followed them.
With the arrival of reinforcements, Martindale was able to turn the tide. The Confederate line broke under the weight of numbers and retreated back through Peake’s Crossing to Ashland. Many men were rounded up by Union cavalry as they fled from the field. The estimates of Union casualties vary from 355 (62 killed, 233 wounded, 70 captured) to 397. The Confederates had at least 1,000 casualties with 200 dead on the field and 730 captured by Porter’s cavalry. (CWSAC Formative Battle Union Victory)
ORDER OF BATTLE: HANOVER COURT HOUSE, VA
Union Department of the Potomac: Major-General George Brinton McClellan
Army of the Potomac: Major-General George Brinton McClellan
V Corps: Brigadier-General Fitz John Porter
1st Division, V Corps: Brigadier-General George Webb Morell
1st Brigade, 1st Division, V Corps: Brigadier-General John Henry Martindale
2nd Brigade, 1st Division, V Corps: Colonel James McQuade
3rd Brigade, 1st Division, V Corps: Brigadier-General Daniel Butterfield
2nd Division, V Corps: Brigadier-General George Sykes
1st Brigade, 2nd Division, V Corps: Colonel Robert C Buchanan
2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, V Corps: Lieutenant-Colonel William Chapman
3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, V Corps: Colonel Gouverneur K Warren
Cavalry Brigade: Brigadier-General William Hemsley Emory
Confederate Department of Northern Virginia: General Joseph Eggleston Johnston
Army of Northern Virginia: General Joseph Eggleston Johnston
Left Wing Northern Virginia: Major-General Gustavus Woodson Smith
Hill’s Division: Major-General Ambrose Powell Hill
Branch’s Brigade, Hill’s Division: Brigadier-General Lawrence O’Bryan Branch
Virginia. Union Major-General John Charles Frémont reached Moorefield on his march from Franklin. Despite orders to march eastwards to Harrisonburg in an attempt to cut the Confederate lines of communications up the Shenandoah Valley, he had moved northwards instead, arguing that the road to the Shenandoah Valley was impassable.
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: Charles Henry Davis
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: Isaac Ferdinand Quinby
- 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
- Sub-District of Columbus: Isaac Ferdinand Quinby
Department of the Missouri: Henry Wager Halleck
- District of St Louis: Lewis Merrill
- District of Central Missouri: James Totten
- 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
Department of the Gulf: Benjamin Franklin Butler
- Army of the Gulf: Benjamin Franklin Butler
Department of Kansas: James Gilpatrick Blunt
Middle Department: John Adams Dix
- District of the Eastern Shore of Maryland: Henry Hayes Lockwood
Mountain Department: John Charles Frémont
- Cheat Mountain District: Thomas Maley Harris
- Railroad District: Benjamin Franklin Kelley
- District of the Kanawha: Jacob Dolson Cox
- 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
- Central and Northern 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: Justis Steinburger
- District of Southern California: George Washington Bowie
Department of the Potomac: George Brinton McClellan
- Army of the Potomac: George Brinton McClellan
- II Corps Potomac: Edwin Vose Sumner
- III Corps Potomac: Samuel Peter Heintzelman
- IV Corps Potomac: Erasmus Darwin Keyes
- V Corps Potomac: Fitz John Porter
- VI Corps Potomac: William Buel Franklin
Department of the Rappahannock: Irvin McDowell
- Military District of Washington: James Samuel Wadsworth
Department of the Shenandoah: Nathaniel Prentiss Banks
Department of the South: David Hunter
- Northern District of the South: Henry Washington Benham
- Southern District of the South: John Milton Brannan
- Western District of the South: Lewis Golding Arnold
Department of Texas: Vacant
Department of Virginia: John Ellis Wool
Confederate Organisation
CSA: Brigadier-General Nathan George Evans assumed interim command of the 2nd Sub-District of South Carolina, succeeding Brigadier-General Roswell Sabine Ripley.
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: John Horace Forney temporary
- Army of Mobile: William L Powell
Department of Middle and Eastern Florida: Joseph Finegan
Department of East Tennessee: Edmund Kirby Smith
- Army of East Tennessee: Edmund Kirby Smith
Department of Henrico: John Henry Winder
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
- Reserve Northern Virginia: John Bankhead Magruder
- Valley District: Thomas Jonathan Jackson
- Army of the Valley: Thomas Jonathan Jackson
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: Nathan George Evans
- 3rd Sub-District of South Carolina: Nathan George Evans
- 4th Sub-District of South Carolina: William Stephen Walker
- 6th Sub-District of South Carolina: Thomas Fenwick Drayton
Department of Southwestern Virginia: William Wing Loring
- District of Abingdon: Humphrey Marshall
Trans-Mississippi Department: Paul Octave Hébert temporary
- Eastern District of Texas: Paul Octave Hébert
- Western District of Texas: Henry Eustace McCullough
- Trans-Mississippi District: Earl Van Dorn interim Thomas Carmichael Hindman awaited
- Forces in Arkansas: John Selden Roane
- District of Arizona: Henry Hopkins Sibley
- District of Indian Territory: Douglas Hancock Cooper
- Sub-District of Houston: John C Bowen
- Sub-District of Galveston: Ebenezer B Nichols
- Sub-District of the Rio Grande: Hamilton Prioleau Bee
- Defences of Pass Cavallo: John W Glenn
Western Department: Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard
- District of North Alabama: Daniel Ruggles
- District of Southern Mississippi and Eastern Louisiana: Earl Van Dorn
- Army of Mississippi: Braxton Bragg
- I Corps Mississippi: Leonidas Polk
- II Corps Mississippi: Thomas Carmichael Hindman
- III Corps Mississippi: William Joseph Hardee
- Reserve Corps Mississippi: John Cabell Breckinridge
- Army of the West: Earl Van Dorn
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
John Ellis Wool
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
Ormsby McKnight Mitchel
Cassius Marcellus Clay
George Henry Thomas
George Cadwalader
William Tecumseh Sherman
Edward Otho Cresap Ord
Edwin Vose Sumner*
Samuel Peter Heintzelman
Erasmus Darwin Keyes
Joseph Hooker
Brigadier-General USA
Brackets indicates concurrently Major-General USV
William Selby Harney
(Edwin Vose Sumner)
Joseph King Fenno Mansfield
(Irvin McDowell)
Robert Anderson
(William Starke Rosecrans)
Philip St George Cooke
Brigadier-General USV
Andrew Porter
Fitz-John Porter
William Buel Franklin
Charles Pomeroy Stone
Thomas West Sherman
George Archibald McCall
William Reading Montgomery
Philip Kearny
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
Henry Hayes Lockwood
Louis Blenker
Henry Warner Slocum
James Samuel Wadsworth
John James Peck
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
Daniel Edgar Sickles
Charles Davis Jameson
Ebenezer Dumont
Robert Huston Milroy
Willis Arnold Gorman
Daniel Butterfield
Horatio Gouverneur Wright
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
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
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
Edward Richard Sprigg Canby
Grenville Mellen Dodge
Robert Byington Mitchell
James Gilpatrick Blunt
Francis Engle Patterson
Quincy Adams Gillmore
Amiel Weeks Whipple
Cuvier Grover
George Lucas Hartsuff
Rufus Saxton
Benjamin Alvord
Napoleon Bonaparte Buford
William Sooy Smith
Nathan Kimball
Charles Devens
James Henry Van Alen
Carl Schurz
Samuel Wylie Crawford
Henry Walton Wessells
Milo Smith Hascall
Leonard Fulton Ross
John White Geary
Alfred Howe Terry
Andrew Atkinson Humphreys
James Henry Carleton
Absalom Baird
John Cleveland Robinson
Truman Seymour
George Dashiell Bayard
Henry Prince
Abram Sanders Piatt
Thomas Turpin Crittenden
Maximilian Weber
Pleasant Adam Hackleman
Jeremiah Cutler Sullivan
Alvin Peterson Hovey
James Clifford Veatch
William Plummer Benton
Henry Bohlen
John Curtis Caldwell
Isaac Peace Rodman
Neal S Dow
George Sears Greene
Samuel Powhatan Carter
John Gibbon
George William Taylor
Erastus Barnard Tyler
James Birdseye McPherson
Brigadier-General USA (Staff)
Montgomery Cunningham Meigs (Quartermaster-General)
Henry Knox Craig
Lorenzo Thomas (Adjutant-General)
James Wolfe Ripley (Ordnance)
William Alexander Hammond (Surgeon-General)
Confederate Generals
Note: Italics, awaiting confirmation of the commission
General ACSA/PACS
Samuel Cooper
Robert Edward Lee
Joseph Eggleston Johnston
Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard
Braxton Bragg
Major-General PACS
Leonidas Polk
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
Jones Mitchell Withers
Thomas Carmichael Hindman
John Cabell Breckinridge
Lafayette McLaws
Ambrose Powell 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
Richard Heron Anderson
Robert Augustus Toombs
Arnold Elzey
William Henry Chase Whiting
Jubal Anderson Early
Isaac Ridgeway Trimble
Daniel Ruggles
Roswell Sabine Ripley
Albert Pike
Paul Octave Hébert
Joseph Reid Anderson
Simon Bolivar Buckner
Albert Gallatin Blanchard
Gabriel James Rains
James Ewell Brown Stuart
Thomas Fenwick Drayton
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
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
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
Lewis Addison Armistead
Joseph Finegan
Martin Luther Smith
Franklin Gardner
William Nelson Rector Beall
Thomas Jordan
William Preston
Roger Atkinson Pryor
Henry Little
John Echols
George Earl Maney
Jean Jacques Alfred Alexandre Mouton
John Stuart Williams
James Green Martin
Thomas Lanier Clingman
Wade Hampton
Daniel Weisiger Adams
Louis Hébert
Samuel Garland
John Creed Moore
American Civil War High Command 