1862 September 16th

September 16 1862 Tuesday

Smith’s Invasion of Kentucky
Bragg’s Invasion of Kentucky – Siege of Munfordville
Maryland Campaign
Kanawha Campaign
Second Corinth Campaign

Go to September 17 1862

Azores. CSS Alabama, Captain Raphael Semmes, captured and burned the whaling ship Courser.

Kentucky. Skirmish at Oakland Station near Munfordville.

Kentucky. The Confederate siege of Munfordville continued.

Maryland. Confederate General Robert Edward Lee continued to prepare defensive positions behind Antietam Creek, near Sharpsburg. Major-General James Longstreet’s command was already in position and the divided Army of Northern Virginia was once again reunited as Major-General Thomas Jonathan Jackson arrived during the day with most of his command from Harper’s Ferry and filed onto the open left flank. While the Confederates were well placed on a ridge, they were vulnerable if they could be dislodged because there was only a single ford over the Potomac in their rear.
During the evening, Union Major-General George Brinton McClellan’s Army of the Potomac began to deploy from the eastern side of Antietam Creek to confront Lee’s Army. Thick morning fog delayed any forward movement and by the time it had cleared around 2 pm and changes to the Confederate deployment noted, McClellan decided to postpone his attack until the following day. At about 4 pm Major-General Joseph Hooker’s I Corps crossed Antietam Creek with 8,600 men and probed the enemy positions along the Hagerstown Road. Brigadier-General George Gordon Meade’s division of I Corps cautiously attacked the Confederates under Major-General John Bell Hood near the East Woods and towards the Dunker Church. Artillery fire continued after dusk as McClellan continued to position his troops. The skirmish in the East Woods signalled McClellan’s intentions to Lee, who prepared his defences accordingly. He shifted more men to reinforce his left flank and sent urgent messages to his two commanders who had not yet arrived from the siege of Harper’s Ferry: Major-General Lafayette McLaws with two divisions and Major-General Ambrose Powell Hill with his division.
McClellan’s overall plan was to overwhelm the enemy’s left flank and then to launch an attack en echelon against the enemy’s centre, and finally their right flank. He arrived at this decision because of the configuration of bridges over the Antietam. The lower stone bridge (later known as Burnside’s Bridge) was dominated by Confederate positions on the bluffs overlooking it. The middle bridge on the Boonsboro road was vulnerable to artillery fire from the heights near Sharpsburg. But the upper bridge was two miles east of the Confederate guns and could be crossed safely to permit an advance to the Hagerstown Road. This direction of attack offered the best chance of pushing the Confederates off the Sharpsburg ridge and southwards towards their single ford. McClellan discontinued his short-lived Wing structure and the various commanders resumed their corps commands. He planned to commit more than half his army to the assault, starting with two corps on the right (I Corps and XII Corps), supported by a third (II Corps). He intended to launch a simultaneous diversionary attack on his left with a fourth corps (XI Corps). The V Corps was available to support either attack as circumstances dictated, and McClellan was also prepared to strike the centre with his main reserve (VI Corps) if either attack succeeded. Major-General Joseph King Fenno Mansfield’s XII Corps set off at midnight to cross Antietam Creek and to provide support for Hooker’s I Corps. McClellan’s plans were sound in principle but the orders were communicated poorly. He issued to each of his subordinate commanders only the orders for their own Corps, without general orders describing the entire battle plan. The terrain of the battlefield made it difficult for Corps commanders to monitor events outside of their own sectors, and McClellan’s headquarters were more than a mile in the rear at the Philip Pry house, east of the creek, making it difficult for him to observe or control the separate corps.

Mississippi. Union reconnaissance to Iuka from Burnsville.

Mississippi. Skirmish at Iuka.

Missouri. Skirmish in Monroe County.

Virginia. Union forces retreating from the Kanawha Valley reached the Ohio River.

Virginia. Union reconnaissance Upton’s Hill towards Leesburg began.

Virginia. Union reconnaissance towards Aldie and Thoroughfare Gap.

Union Organisation

USA: Major-General John Pope arrived to command the Department of the Northwest.

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: Samuel Phillips Lee
South Atlantic Blockading Squadron: Samuel Francis Du Pont
West Gulf Blockading Squadron: David Glasgow Farragut
East Gulf Blockading Squadron: James Lawrence Lardner
Pacific Squadron: Charles H Bell
Western Gunboat Flotilla: Charles Henry Davis
Potomac Flotilla: Andrew Allen Harwood

General–in-Chief: Henry Wager Halleck

Department of the Mississippi: Henry Wager Halleck

• District of Corinth: William Starke Rosecrans
• District of West Tennessee: Ulysses Simpson Grant
  • Sub-District of Jackson: John Alexander Logan
  • Army of the Mississippi: William Starke Rosecrans
  • Army of West Tennessee: Ulysses Simpson Grant

Department of the Missouri: Henry Wager Halleck

• District of Missouri: John McAllister Schofield
• District of Southwest Missouri: Egbert Benson Brown
  • Army of the Southwest: Frederick Steele
• District of Northwest Missouri: Willard Preble Hall

Department of the Gulf: Benjamin Franklin Butler

• District of Pensacola: Lewis Golding Arnold
• Army of the Gulf: Benjamin Franklin Butler

Department of Kansas: James Gilpatrick Blunt

• Army of Kansas: James Gilpatrick Blunt

Middle Department: John Ellis Wool

• District of the Eastern Shore of Maryland: Henry Hayes Lockwood
• VIII Corps Middle: John Ellis Wool

Department of New Mexico: Edward Richard Sprigg Canby interim James Henry Carleton awaited

• District of Arizona: Joseph Rodman West

Department of New York: Edward Denison Morgan

Department of North Carolina: John Gray Foster

Department of the Northwest: John Pope

• District of Wisconsin: Washington Lafayette Elliott

Department of the Ohio: Horatio Gouverneur Wright

• District of Louisville: Jeremiah Tilford Boyle
• Army of the Ohio: Don Carlos Buell

Department of the Pacific: George Wright

• District of the Humboldt: Francis James Lippitt
• District of Oregon: Benjamin Alvord
• District of Southern California: George Washington Bowie
• District of Utah: Patrick Edward Connor

Department of the Potomac: George Brinton McClellan

• Army of the Potomac: George Brinton McClellan
  • I Corps Potomac: Joseph Hooker
  • II Corps Potomac: Edwin Vose Sumner
  • III Corps Potomac: Samuel Peter Heintzelman
  • V Corps Potomac: Fitz John Porter
  • VI Corps Potomac: William Buel Franklin
  • IX Corps Potomac: Jacob Dolson Cox temporary
  • XI Corps Potomac: Franz Sigel
  • XII Corps Potomac: Joseph King Fenno Mansfield

Department of the South: John Milton Brannan temporary

• X Corps South: John Milton Brannan

Department of Texas: Vacant

Department of Virginia: John Adams Dix

• IV Corps Virginia: Erasmus Darwin Keyes
• VII Corps Virginia: John Adams Dix

District of the Ohio: Don Carlos Buell

Military District of Washington: Nathaniel Prentiss Banks

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: Vacant

Department of Middle and Eastern Florida: Joseph Finegan

Department of East Tennessee: John Porter McCown

• Army of Kentucky: Edmund Kirby Smith

Department of Henrico: John Henry Winder

Department of North Carolina: Daniel Harvey Hill

• District of North Carolina: James Green Martin
  • Sub-District of Cape Fear: William Henry Chase Whiting

Department of Northern Virginia: Robert Edward Lee

• Army of Northern Virginia: Robert Edward Lee
  • Longstreet’s Command Northern Virginia: James Longstreet
  • Jackson’s Command Northern Virginia: Thomas Jonathan Jackson
• Valley District: Daniel Harvey Hill temporary

Department of Richmond: Gustavus Woodson Smith

Department of South Carolina and Georgia: John Clifford Pemberton interim Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard 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: Johnson Hagood
  • 3^rd Sub-District of South Carolina: William Stephen Walker
  • 4^th Sub-District of South Carolina: William Stephen Walker

Department of Southwestern Virginia: William Wing Loring

• District of Abingdon: Humphrey Marshall

Trans-Mississippi Department: Theophilus Hunter Holmes

• District of Missouri: Sterling Price
• District of Arkansas: Thomas Carmichael Hindman
• District of West Louisiana: Richard Taylor
• District of Texas: Paul Octave Hébert
  • Sub-District of Houston: Xavier Blanchard Debray
• Western District of Texas: Henry Eustace McCullough
  • Eastern Sub-District of Western Texas: Xavier Blanchard Debray
  • Sub-District of the Rio Grande: Hamilton Prioleau Bee
• District of Arizona: Henry Hopkins Sibley
• District of Indian Territory: Douglas Hancock Cooper
• Defences of Pass Cavallo: John W Glenn

Western Department: Braxton Bragg

• District of the Mississippi: Daniel Ruggles temporary
• District of Southern Mississippi and Eastern Louisiana: vacant
  • 1^st Sub-District of Southern Mississippi and Eastern Louisiana: vacant
  • 2^nd Sub-District of Southern Mississippi and Eastern Louisiana: William Nelson Rector Beall
  • 3^rd Sub-District of Southern Mississippi and Eastern Louisiana: Martin Luther Smith
• District of the Tennessee: Sterling Price
• Gulf District: John Horace Forney
• Army of Mississippi: Braxton Bragg
  • Right Wing Mississippi: Leonidas Polk
  • Left Wing Mississippi: William Joseph Hardee
  • Reserve Corps Mississippi: Jones Mitchell Withers
• Army of the West: Sterling Price

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
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
Silas Casey
Fitz John Porter
William Buel Franklin
Darius Nash Couch
Israel Bush Richardson
Henry Warner Slocum
John James Peck
John Sedgwick
William Farrar Smith
Alexander McDowell McCook
William Nelson
Thomas Leonidas Crittenden
Joseph King Fenno Mansfield*
John Gray Foster
John Grubb Parke
Christopher Columbus Augur
Robert Cumming Schenck

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
(John Pope)

Brigadier-General USV

Andrew Porter
Charles Pomeroy Stone
Thomas West Sherman
George Archibald McCall
William Reading Montgomery
Charles Smith Hamilton
Rufus King
Jacob Dolson Cox
Stephen Augustus Hurlbut
Benjamin Mayberry Prentiss
Benjamin Franklin Kelley
Alpheus Starkey Williams
James Cooper
James Brewerton Ricketts
Orlando Bolivar Willcox
Michael Corcoran
Henry Hayes Lockwood
Louis Blenker
James Samuel Wadsworth
George Webb Morell
John Henry Martindale
Samuel Davis Sturgis
George Stoneman
James William Denver
Egbert Ludovicus Vielé
James Shields
John Fulton Reynolds
William Farquhar Barry
John Joseph Abercrombie
Lawrence Pike Graham
George Gordon Meade
Abram Duryée
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 Thomas Ward
John Gross Barnard
Innis Newton Palmer
Seth Williams
John Newton
Winfield Scott Hancock
George Wright
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
George Washington Cullum
Jeremiah Tilford Boyle
Schuyler Hamilton
George Washington Morgan
Julius Stahel
John McAllister Schofield
Thomas Jefferson McKean
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
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
John Curtis Caldwell
Isaac Peace Rodman
Neal S Dow
George Sears Greene
Samuel Powhatan Carter
John Gibbon
Erastus Barnard Tyler
James Birdseye McPherson
Charles Griffin
George Henry Gordon
James Madison Tuttle
Julius White
Peter Joseph Osterhaus
Stephen Gano Burbridge
Washington Lafayette Elliott
Albion Parris Howe
Green Clay Smith
William Bowen Campbell
Philip Henry Sheridan
Benjamin Stone Roberts
Alfred Pleasonton
Jacob Ammen
Joshua Woodrow Sill
Catharinus Putnam Buckingham
Fitz-Henry Warren
Morgan Lewis Smith
Charles Cruft
Frederick Saloman
James Streshly Jackson
Cadwallader Colden Washburn
Francis Jay Herron
John Cochrane
John Basil Turchin
Henry Shaw Briggs
Conrad Feger Jackson
James Dada Morgan
Johann August Ernst Willich
Henry Dwight Terry
James Blair Steedman
George Foster Shepley
John Buford
Francis Preston Blair
John Reese Kenly
John Potts Slough
Godfrey Weitzel
Gabriel René Paul
George Crook
Thomas Leiper Kane
Gershom Mott
William Rufus Terrill
Edward Ferrero
Henry Jackson Hunt
Calvin Edward Pratt

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
Richard Heron Anderson
James Ewell Brown Stuart
Richard Taylor
Simon Bolivar Buckner
Samuel Gibbs French

Brigadier-General PACS

Alexander Robert Lawton
Charles Clark
John Buchanan Floyd
Henry Alexander Wise
David Rumph Jones
Henry Hopkins Sibley
John Henry Winder
Daniel Smith Donelson
Robert Augustus Toombs
Arnold Elzey
William Henry Chase Whiting
Jubal Anderson Early
Isaac Ridgeway Trimble
Daniel Ruggles
Roswell Sabine Ripley
Paul Octave Hébert
Albert Gallatin Blanchard
Gabriel James Rains
Thomas Fenwick Drayton
Lloyd Tilghman
Nathan George Evans
Cadmus Marcellus Wilcox
Robert Emmett Rodes
James Heyward Trapier
William Henry Carroll
Hugh Weedon Mercer
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
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
John Creed Moore
Ambrose Ransom Wright
James Lawson Kemper
James Jay Archer
George Burgwyn Anderson
Beverley Holcombe Robertson
St John Richardson Liddell
Nathan Bedford Forrest
Johnson Hagood
William Dorsey Pender
Micah Jenkins
Martin Edwin Green
Fitzhugh Lee
Harry Thompson Hays
Albert Gallatin Jenkins
William Edwin Starke
William Barksdale
Edward Dorr Tracy
Matthew Duncan Ector
Edward Aylesworth Perry
John Gregg
John Calvin Brown
Alfred Holt Colquitt
Junius Daniel
Abraham Buford
William Steele
James Fleming Fagan
William Read Scurry
Allison Nelson
Francis Asbury Shoup
Joseph Robert Davis
William Henry Fitzhugh Lee