1862 September 23rd

September 23 1862 Tuesday

Battle of Wood Lake, MN (CWSAC Formative Battle Union Victory)

Smith’s Invasion of Kentucky
Bragg’s Invasion of Kentucky
Second Corinth Campaign

CSA. A Bill was presented to the Confederate Congress authorising the grade of Brigadier-General for all heads of staff departments and bureaux. The final proposal admitted by Congress was for the Quartermaster-General alone to hold the grade of Brigadier-General. Even this limited Bill was vetoed by the President on 6 October 1862 and the Senate failed to override the veto. Whereas the US Regular Army gradually acknowledged the need for staff departments to be headed by officers of General officer grade, the same practice was adopted only partially in the Confederacy.

Arkansas. Skirmish at McGuire’s Ferry.

Dakota Territory. Skirmish with the Sioux at Fort Abercrombie.

Georgia. USS Alabama, Lieutenant-Commander William T Truxtun, captured the blockade-running British schooner Nelly off Ossabaw Sound, with its cargo including medicinal drugs and salt.

Kentucky. Confederate General Braxton Bragg’s Army of Mississippi was at Bardstown and the Army of Kentucky under Major-General Edmund Kirby Smith was fifty miles further to the north at Lexington. Meanwhile, Union Major-General Don Carlos Buell’s Army of the Ohio was passing west of Bardstown towards Louisville. Smith proposed to Bragg the necessity of striking a joint blow against Buell in order to ignite more enthusiastic pro-Confederate sentiment among the Kentuckians. Bragg was unwilling to attack without Smith’s assistance and he was reluctant to interrupt the important work that Smith was doing to gather supplies, food, and recruits by ordering him to abandon that work to head for Louisville. The Confederate invasion was thus immobilised, prevaricating for a decision for the two armies either to retreat or to combine for an attack.

Minnesota. Incident at Yellow Medicine.

Wood Lake, Minnesota. Union Colonel Henry Hastings Sibley and 1,500 volunteers neared Wood Lake near Yellow Medicine. Sibley’s men escaped an ambush by 700 warriors under Chief Little Crow and engaged them. Sibley’s force won the day inflicting heavy casualties on the Sioux for a loss of 37 Union casualties. Some reports claimed 1,000 prisoners including civilians. Wood Lake was the first decisive defeat of the Sioux since the uprising which had begun on 17 August 1862. (CWSAC Formative Battle Union Victory)

Missouri. Expedition to Cass County, Jackson County, and Lafayette County ended.

Missouri. Operation at Johnson County ended.

Missouri. Union expedition to Eureka and Boone County began.

Tennessee. Operation at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson ended.

Tennessee. Skirmish at Wolf Creek Bridge near Memphis.

Tennessee. The USS Eugene neared the town of Randolph on the Mississippi River and was fired on by Confederates onshore. It escaped after suffering minor damage.

Texas. The Union steamer Kensington, schooner Rachel Seaman, and mortar schooner Henry James appeared off the bar at Sabine Pass.

Virginia. Expedition to Warrenton Junction began.

Virginia. Incidents at Standing Stone and Sutton.

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: 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: Major-General Samuel Jones arrived to command the Department of East Tennessee, succeeding Major-General John Porter McCown.

CSA: Samuel Garland confirmed Brigadier-General PACS 23 September 1862 to rank from 23 May 1862 posthumously. Garland had been killed at Fox’s Gap on 14 September 1862.

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: Samuel Jones

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
- 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
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
John Crawford Vaughn