September 20 1862 Saturday
Battle of Shepherdstown, MD (CWSAC Formative Battle – Confederate Victory)
Battle of Iuka, MS (CWSAC Formative Battle Union Victory)
Smith’s Invasion of Kentucky
Bragg’s Invasion of Kentucky
Second Corinth Campaign
USA. Recognition of Joseph Hooker’s aggressive leadership throughout the campaigns of 1862 was announced. He was promoted to Brigadier-General in the US Regular Army concurrently with his commissions as Major-General in the US Volunteers. This made Hooker the twelfth-ranking officer of the Regular Army.
CSA. Matthew Fontaine Maury became the Confederate Naval Agent in Europe, serving until April 1865.
Arizona Territory. The “California Column” of Union Colonel James Henry Carleton arrived from southern California at Santa Fe after a journey of five months’ duration. Their arrival forced those Confederates remaining from the unsuccessful Arizona campaign to withdraw to San Antonio, Texas. Carleton’s presence forced the Confederates to give up their designs for the conquest of the Arizona and New Mexico Territories.
Arkansas. Skirmish near Helena.
District of Columbia.
ORDER OF BATTLE: UNION MIDDLE DEPARTMENT
Union Middle Department: Major-General John Ellis Wool
District of the Eastern Shore of Maryland: Brigadier-General Henry Hayes Lockwood
VIII Corps (Middle): Major-General John Ellis Wool
Defences of Baltimore: Brigadier-General William Hopkins Morris
Annapolis, Maryland: Colonel J F Staunton
Fort Delaware: Major H S Burton
Baltimore, Maryland: Brigadier-General William Hemsley Emory
Relay House: Colonel C L K. Sumwalt
Kentucky. Skirmishes at Owensburg and Munfordville.
Kentucky. Union Major-General George Henry Thomas joined Major-General Don Carlos Buell at Cave City with two divisions of reinforcements. The combined force of the Army of the Ohio approached the town of Munfordville to find that occupying Confederate army of General Braxton Bragg had departed. Buell assumed that the Confederates would aim for Louisville but at Hodgenville, Bragg turned east over Muldraugh’s Hill and across the Rolling Fork to Bardstown. This choice opened the direct route to Louisville for the Union army and Buell decided to take it to go to the relief of the hard-pressed Major-General William Nelson.
Maryland. Skirmishes at Williamsport and Hagerstown.
Mississippi. Skirmish on the Fulton Road, south of Iuka.
Iuka, Mississippi. Following the inconclusive fighting against Union Major-General William Starke Rosecrans on 19 September, Confederate Major-General Sterling Price determined at first to re-engage the enemy. Price’s subordinates convinced him that the strength of the enemy resistance indicated they were in superior force. Moreover, the presence of additional Union troops west of Iuka (Major-General Edward Otho Cresap Ord’s three divisions) threatened the Confederate rear and Price was persuaded to retreat. The Confederate council of war recommended that Price should march to join Major-General Earl Van Dorn as previously intended. Price’s army evacuated their positions via the uncovered Fulton Road, protecting its rear with a heavy rearguard. They linked up successfully with Van Dorn five days later at Ripley.
Meanwhile, Rosecrans redeployed his men to resist an anticipated resumption of the attack. Union Brigadier-General David Sloane Stanley’s Union division deployed in the expectation of an engagement at daylight but as they advanced they found the Confederate force had withdrawn. Stanley followed their route, shelling the town of Iuka and driving out a number of stragglers. He captured the town and pushed on for several miles but the exhausted condition of his troops meant that his column was outrun and he gave up the pursuit. The Confederate rearguard ambushed Stanley’s troops eight miles from Iuka and difficult terrain slowed any further progress. While Stanley followed the Confederate rear, in anticipation that Price would march to join Van Dorn, Ord’s command headed west towards Holly Springs.
Rosecrans was supposed to cover the Fulton Road but he had not guarded the road because he feared dividing his force. Union Major-General Ulysses Simpson Grant later approved this prudent decision even though it had permitted the Confederates to escape by the Fulton Road. The combined Union forces might have destroyed or captured Price’s isolated army at Iuka, but confusion, delays and the difficulty of coordinating separated columns prevented their success.
Union casualties at Iuka were about 790 with 144 killed, 598 wounded, and 40 captured or missing. The Confederates lost 263 killed, 692 wounded, 561 captured or missing; or by alternative reports 535 men. (CWSAC Formative Battle Union Victory)
Missouri. Skirmish at Shirley’s Ford on the Spring River.
North Carolina. Operations at Shiloh ended. The Union warship USS Lancer sent a landing party ashore near Shiloh and defeated a small Confederate force.
Tennessee. Union expedition from Bolivar to Grand Junction and La Grange began.
Tennessee. Skirmish at Brentwood.
Tennessee. Reinforcement by the 1st Division of Union Major-General William Starke Rosecrans’ Army of the Mississippi began to arrive from Corinth, Mississippi, to strengthen Brigadier-General James Negley’s division of the Army of the Ohio at Nashville.
ORDER OF BATTLE: UNION FORCES AT NASHVILLE, TN
Union Department of the Missouri: Major-General Henry Wager Halleck
Army of the Mississippi: Major-General William Starke Rosecrans
1st Division (Mississippi): Brigadier-General John McAuley Palmer
1st Brigade, 1st Division (Mississippi): Colonel G W Roberts
2nd Brigade, 1st Division (Mississippi): Brigadier-General James Dada Morgan
Department of the Ohio: Major-General Horatio Gouverneur Wright
Army of the Ohio: Major-General Don Carlos Buell
Post of Nashville: Brigadier-General James Scott Negley
8th Division (Ohio): Brigadier-General James Scott Negley
7th Brigade, 8th Division (Ohio): Colonel J F Miller
29th Brigade, 8th Division (Ohio): Colonel T R Stanley
Virginia. Skirmish at Ashby’s Gap.
Virginia. Skirmish at Point Pleasant.
Shepherdstown, Virginia. Early in the day, Union Major-General Fitz-John Porter pushed elements of two divisions from V Corps across Boteler’s (Blackford’s) ford to re-establish a stronger bridgehead on the southern bank of the Potomac River after the successful surprise attack of the previous night.
Confederate Major-General Ambrose Powell Hill’s division countermarched five miles back towards Shepherdstown to block Porter’s further advance from the ford. Hill’s six brigades counterattacked despite coming under heavy fire from 70 Union guns posted across the river on the Maryland hills. Porter, receiving reports that his infantry on the Virginia side was badly outnumbered, ordered a withdrawal. However, the Colonel of the inexperienced 118th Pennsylvania Infantry refused to retire until orders were received through the proper chain of command and his regiment was left isolated on the southern bank. As the Confederates approached, the Union regiment panicked, with men scrambling down the steep cliffs and crossing the ford and a nearby dam. Several men drowned in their attempt to reach safety and the regiment reported 272 casualties out of its 737 men.
The rearguard action at Shepherdstown discouraged any further significant Union pursuit of the retreating Confederate army. The Union lost 92 killed, 131 wounded and 103 missing. Confederate casualties were 261 to 268 men. (CWSAC Formative Battle – Confederate Victory)
Union Organisation
USA: Joseph Hooker promoted Brigadier-General USA 20 September 1862. Hooker held concurrently the grade of Major-General USV.
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 Missouri: Henry Wager Halleck
- District of Missouri: John McAllister Schofield
- District of St Louis: John Wynn Davidson
- 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
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: James Henry Carleton
- 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
- Sub-District of the Kanawha: Joseph Andrew Jackson Lightburn
- 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: George Gordon Meade temporary
- 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: Alpheus Starkey Williams temporary
Department of the South: Ormsby McKnight Mitchel
- X Corps South: Ormsby McKnight Mitchel
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
District of West Tennessee: Ulysses Simpson Grant
- District of Corinth: William Starke Rosecrans
- Sub-District of Jackson: John Alexander Logan
- Army of the Mississippi: William Starke Rosecrans
- Army of West Tennessee: Ulysses Simpson Grant
District of Colorado: John Milton Chivington
Military District of Washington: Nathaniel Prentiss Banks
Confederate Organisation
CSA: Admiral Franklin Buchanan assumed command of the Naval Squadron Mobile, Alabama
CSA: Matthew Fontaine Maury became Confederate Naval Agent in Europe
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 interim Samuel Jones awaited
- Army of Kentucky: Edmund Kirby Smith
Department of Henrico: John Henry Winder
Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia: Gustavus Woodson Smith
- Sub-District of Cape Fear: Samuel Gibbs French
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
- 1st Sub-District of South Carolina: Arthur Middleton Manigault.
- 2nd Sub-District of South Carolina: Johnson Hagood
- 3rd Sub-District of South Carolina: William Stephen Walker
- 4th 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
- 1st Sub-District of Southern Mississippi and Eastern Louisiana: vacant
- 2nd Sub-District of Southern Mississippi and Eastern Louisiana: William Nelson Rector Beall
- 3rd 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
John Gray Foster
John Grubb Parke
Christopher Columbus Augur
Robert Cumming Schenck
Stephen Augustus Hurlbut
Gordon Granger
Charles Smith Hamilton
Brigadier-General USA
Brackets indicates concurrently Major-General USV
William Selby Harney
(Edwin Vose Sumner)
(Irvin McDowell)
Robert Anderson
(William Starke Rosecrans)
Philip St George Cooke
(John Pope)
(Joseph Hooker)
Brigadier-General USV
Andrew Porter
Charles Pomeroy Stone
Thomas West Sherman
George Archibald McCall
William Reading Montgomery
Rufus King
Jacob Dolson Cox
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
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
Francis Laurens Vinton
Henry Jackson Hunt
Joseph Jones Reynolds
Francis Channing Barlow
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
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
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 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
William Edmondson Jones
William Edwin Baldwin
American Civil War High Command 