Jackson Resigns!
From the Editor: The long simmering dispute between William W. Loring and Thomas J. Jackson boils over. At the direction of President Davis, Secretary of War Judah Benjamin sends Jackson a terse dispatch: “Order him [Loring] back to Winchester immediately.” Jackson complies, but also tenders his own resignation from service in the Confederate Army. This type of meddling from the War Department in Richmond is, in Jackson's eyes, intolerable. On the western front, the Kentucky line is broken and Albert Sidney Johnston needs reinforcements. President Davis, struggling to implement the Furlough and Bounty Act, has no troops available. Instead, General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard is sent to Tennessee. Union Department of the Missouri commander Henry Halleck hears of Beauregard's arrival, but is mistakenly informed that Beauregard is also bringing nineteen regiments with him. If an attack is to be made, it must be before Johnston is reinforced. Forced to finally act, Henry Halleck wires Ulysses S. Grant; the attack on Fort Henry is approved.
January 26, 1862 (Sunday)
From his headquarters in Bowling Green, Kentucky, Albert Sidney Johnston, again asks Confederate President Jefferson Davis for reinforcements. Davis, still trying to sort through furloughs and re-enlistments, is unable to comply with Johnston’s request. Instead, he sends General G.T. Beauregard, who has been increasingly unhappy with his diminished role in the Department of Northern Virginia. Secretary of War Judah Benjamin pens the order: “[President Davis] desires that you proceed at once to…Bowling Green, Ky., and thence proceed, as promptly as possible, to assume your new command at Columbus, which is threatened by a powerful force, and the successful defense of which is of vital importance.”
WAR DEPARTMENT. C.S.A., Richmond, Va., January 26, 1862.
General JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON, Centreville, Va.: Inclosed you will find an order detaching General Beauregard from the army under your command and assigning him to do duty at Columbus, Ky. I am, your obedient servant,
J.P. BENJAMIN, Secretary of War.
Secretary Benjamin receives a letter from the officers of William Loring’s Army of the Northwest, requesting an immediate withdrawal from Romney, Virginia. In addition, Loring adds a small addendum: “I am most anxious to re-enlist this fine army, equal to any I ever saw, and am satisfied if something is not done to relieve it, it will be found impossible to induce the army to do so.” Upon receiving the letter, Benjamin asks Joseph E. Johnston, Department of Northern Virginia, to investigate the matter.
WAR DEPARTMENT, C.S.A., Richmond, Va., January 26, 1862.
General JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON, Centreville, Va.: The accounts which have reached us of the condition of the army in the Valley District fill us with apprehension, especially when connected with the fact reported by you of the movement of large bodies of the enemy to Harper's Ferry. The President, therefore, requests that you will, as promptly as possible, examine for yourself into the true state of the case, take such measures as you think prudent under the circumstances, and report to the Department whether any measures are necessary on its part to restore the efficiency of that army, said to be seriously impaired. Your obedient servant,
J.P. BENJAMIN, Secretary of War.
James Trudeau, Chief of Artillery, First Division, Western Department (C.S.), reports that “the guns at Fort Columbus [Kentucky] are now all in battle order.” He continues: “The traverse circles are being laid down [and] all the chassis then will work as well as can be expected.” He also observes that “the fort is in a deplorable condition” because of “the filthy habits of the infantry garrison.” He recommends that “sinks should be provided in two or three points, and the men punished when at fault with police regulations.” In addition, Trudeau recommends the importance of fortifying Island No. 10, near New Madrid, Missouri. He writes: “The strategic importance of Island No. 10 is so great that it now becomes indispensable to occupy it strongly and permanently.”
Memoranda of suggestions to be laid before the major-general commanding by the chief of heavy artillery.
HEADQUARTERS HEAVY ARTILLERY, Columbus, Ky., January 26, 1862.
The formation of the chain of hills around Columbus is very peculiar. It commences on Hamilton's Bluff and extends in a regular manner describing a semicircle all around our lines, ending at Crow's Point. The survey begun by [Captain Andrew B. Gray, Chief Engineer,] will exhibit this peculiarity, of which the enemy can take advantage to establish his line of attack. Four works of small development are necessary to render this naturally strong position impregnable.... Those works being open to our fires, the enemy will not gain anything except the position if the works should be taken, and as they flank each other it must be done at a great sacrifice of life. Of course in that case the guns must be destroyed and the works blown up…. I propose, if the major-general should allow me to do so, to report upon the position and the works erected at New Madrid, Fort Thompson, and Fort Pillow.... Respectfully submitted to the major-general for consideration.
J. TRUDEAU, Chief of Heavy Artillery.
Other Union activity reported on this date:
1. General-in-Chief McClellan informs Virginia Governor Peirpoint that [T.J. Jackson] has “fallen back to [Unger’s Store] in Morgan County.” He writes, “I apprehend nothing from him.”
2. D.C. Buell orders S.P. Carter, 12th Brigade, to “seize and hold Cumberland Gap.
3. From Hatteras Inlet (NC), A.E. Burnside reports on the progress of his expedition: “We have succeeded in getting into the [Pamlico] sound.”
4. Accompanied by the gunboats U.S.S. Ottawa, Seneca, Isaac, H. Smith, Potomska, Ellen, Western World and two armed launches, H.G. Wright, 3rd Brig., Expeditionary Corps, leads a reconnaissance into the Wilmington Narrows (GA).
5. The last of the ships that are part of the ‘second stone fleet’ are sunk in Charleston harbor at Maffitt’s Channel (SC).
Other Confederate activity reported on this date:
1. G.B. Crittenden leads his retreating army to Gainesborough (TN), and reports: “A good many men have left me on account of the country through which I have passed being the homes of a good portion of two regiments.
January 27, 1862 (Monday)
For weeks President Abraham Lincoln has tried to get his departmental commanders in the West to cooperate in a combined offensive against Albert S. Johnston’s Tennessee defensive line to no avail. He has tried a variety of approaches ranging from gentle persuasion to sending messages directly to his generals in an effort to get them to act in an aggressive manner. Now he takes a different tack, issuing President's General War Order, No. 1.
PRESIDENT'S GENERAL WAR ORDER, No. 1
EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, January 27, 1862.
Ordered, That the 22d day of February, 1862, be the day for a general movement of the land and naval forces of the United States against the insurgent forces. That the heads of Departments will be held to their strict and full responsibilities for prompt execution of this order.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
When George McClellan was promoted to General-in-Chief and transferred to Washington, DC, he brought his friend Allan Pinkerton, president of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, with him to be his chief of intelligence. Pinkerton utilizes “spies, contrabands, deserters, refugees, and rebel prisoners of war” to provide “a varied summary of the rebel forces and defenses.” A Confederate deserter from the Sixth Louisiana provides some interesting intelligence to Pinkerton which he dutifully passes on to ‘Little Mac’. According to the deserter, “the rebel forces at Manassas, Centreville, and vicinity [are] about 60,000, under command of Generals Johnston, Beauregard, and Smith.”
JANUARY 27, 1862.
A deserter from the Sixth Louisiana Regiment states that he left Centreville about 25th December, 1861, and Manassas about January 7, 1862 [and] that he got his information from a clerk in the rebel Commissary Department.... Recapitulation of forces stated as being in vicinity of Manassas, Centreville, Union Mills, Stone Bridge, and Benson's Ford.... Roads bad. Railroad from Manassas to Centreville progressing; 300 "miners" at work on it. Provisions plenty.
Conclusion: Informant entitled to credit; his statement believed truthful.
E.J. ALLEN. [ALLEN PINKERTON.]
From Somerset, Kentucky, George H. Thomas, First Division, Department of the Ohio, reports that “there are no supplies at this place” and his food supply is so low he can only give Samuel P. Carter’s brigade “two days’ rations” for his move towards Cumberland Gap. As a result, Department of the Ohio commander Don Carlos Buell halts Thomas’ advance into East Tennessee and orders him to “guard Kentucky against invasion by that route.”
HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE OHIO, Louisville, Ky., January 27, 1862.
General LORENZO THOMAS, Adjutant-General U.S. Army, Washington, D.C.: The natural expectation that our success at Somerset would be followed rapidly by other successful operations against the enemy makes it proper that I should state for the information of the General-in-Chief the circumstances which, I fear, must to some extent disappoint that expectation. With all the means we have it has been barely possible to keep the force at Somerset from starving, and at times for several days some of them have been on half rations. The country yields but little besides corn.... Under these circumstances any advance beyond Somerset is as present impossible.... This is not as favorable a result of our efforts as I should like to present, Very respectfully, your obedient, servant,
D.C. BUELL, Brigadier-General, Commanding.
Since the beginning of the war, the Lincoln administration has insisted that captured privateers be treated as common criminals instead of as prisoners of war. In retaliation, President Davis has ordered that an equal number of Union prisoners be “treated in the same manner,” as imprisoned privateers. Currently, the Confederates are holding four “field officers,” Colonel Michael Corcoran, 69th New York, Colonel William Woodruff, Second Kentucky, Lieutenant-Colonel George Neff, Second Kentucky, and Major James Potter 38th New York, “in the condemned cells at Charleston jail” in retaliation for the treatment privateers have “experienced at the hands of our Government.” From his jail cell, Major Potter writes: “It is the first case of the kind where colonels, lieutenant-colonels and majors have been held for common seamen.... If the Government intends to hang them [the privateers] you will oblige by ascertaining about the time this happy event for us is to take place, for in that case we can look forward to something definite and besides I require a short time for preparation.”
HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF NORFOLK, Norfolk, Va., January 27, 1862
Maj. Gen. [John] E. WOOL, Commanding Department of Virginia: My Government will not take into consideration any proposition for exchange of our privateers taken in our service on the high seas until there is an absolute, unconditional abandonment of the pretext that they are pirates, and until they are released from the position of felons and placed in the same condition as other prisoners of war. By command of Major-General Huger:
[BENJAMIN] HUGER, JR., Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General.
Guerilla activity and bridge burning along the North Missouri Railroad continue to hamper the Federal military effort in Missouri. To combat this John M. Schofield, District of Saint Louis, commanding the troops protecting the railroad, orders that all prisoners “whom there is satisfactory evidence of bridge-burning and like crimes” be taken to Palmyra, Missouri, for trial in front of a military commission.
HEADQUARTERS NORTH MISSOURI RAILROAD Saint Louis, Mo., January 27, [1862]
Capt. LEONIDAS HORNEY Tenth Missouri Volunteers, Comdg. Post, High Hill, Mo.: You will of course use the utmost diligence in ferreting out the bridge-burners and arrest if possible all who have been guilty of furnishing them with tools or arms. Your attention is particularly directed to the wealthy and influential secessionists in your vicinity against whom you may find evidence of complicity with the bridge-burners. Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
[CHARLES] S. SHELDON, Lieutenant and Aide-de-Camp.
Other Union activity reported on this date:
1. H.W. Halleck, Dept. of the Missouri, orders Col. W.P. Carlin, 38th Illinois, to “throw forward a regiment of infantry” from Ironton to Greenville, and also to “threaten Poplar Bluff and Donifan (MO).
2. T.L. Crittenden reports he has received “information” that Colonel N.B. Forrest’s cavalry has “destroyed all the bridges on Pond River (KY),” and is planning to “destroy Lock No.1 on Green River.”
Other Confederate activity reported on this date:
1. Secretary Benjamin orders H.W. Wise, commanding on Roanoke Island, to “hold at all costs."
2. A.S. Johnston requests “two 10-inch columbiads” for Fort Henry (TN), twenty-five 12-pounders, twenty 18-pounders, twenty24-pounders, six columbiads, 10-inch or 8.inch, and six 32-pounder guns for Nashville, and two columbiads, two 32-pounders, six 12-pounders, six 18-pounders, and four 24-pounders for the defense of Clarksville.
3. J.M. Withers is assigned to command the Army of Mobile, and Sam. Jones is assigned to command the Army of Pensacola (FL).
4. The Richmond Dispatch reports the death of Mary Anne, aged 13 months, and James, Jr., aged 4 years, of scarlet fever, children of General J. Longstreet and his wife Marie.
January 28, 1862 (Tuesday)
Charles S. Tripler, Surgeon and Medical Director of the Army of the Potomac, having spent the last six weeks completing an inspection tour of hospital facilities, issues a report with several surprising conclusions. He writes: “I think there is abundant reason to be satisfied with the progress that has been made in this army in introducing something of a system of hygiene; in instructing its medical officers in their duties; in keeping them supplied with sufficient medicines, hospital stores, and instruments.”
HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, Medical Director's Office, January 28, 1862.
Brig. Gen. [SETH] WILLIAMS, Assistant Adjutant-General, Army of the Potomac: Considering the season of the year and the unfavorable state of the weather it cannot be disputed that this is the most healthy army the world has ever seen…. We have now successfully passed through the season of malarious fevers. The sanitary arrangements of this army have been successful in warding off the diseases of summer and autumn. We are now called upon to guard against those of winter and spring. The principal diseases we have to fear are typhus and typhoid. These diseases arise from foul air, bad clothing, imperfect shelter, exposure to cold and wet, imperfectly-drained and badly-policed camps, &c. The indispensable conditions for securing the health of men in the field are good shelter, good clothing, good food, and good water, dry campgrounds, and an abundant supply of pure air.... The food of our men is now good, and they are gradually improving in their cooking. We have no pernicious dysenteries or diarrheas in our camps. Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
CHAS. S. TRIPLER, Surgeon and Medical Director Army of the Potomac.
Captain John H. Morgan, Kentucky (C.S.) Cavalry, leads a daring raid with nine men dressed in Union uniforms on a five day excursion into Kentucky. Morgan captures four prisoners, burns several buildings, and liberates eleven horses before eluding Union pursuers and crossing the Green River to safety. Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas C.H. Smith, First Ohio Cavalry, a former telegraph company president, leads the Union pursuit. He reports: “I started immediately with two companies and pursued them to Vaughn's Ferry, about 24 miles from our camp.... They had crossed the river some hours before in the ferry-boat and set the boat adrift. There was no skiff or other means to cross the river there.”
Report of Capt. John H. Morgan, Kentucky Cavalry.
SIR: I started from camp...with 9 men and a guide.... Reached Green River about 5 o'clock; found it out of its bank and a large quantity of drift running; had to go up the river about 2 miles to get a boat, which was owned by a Lincoln man...; he took us for Federals, as we had so many Federal uniforms, and came over; made one trip, and had crossed half over with another, when he discovered who we were; it seems that one of our prisoners was a private in Montgomery's son-in-law's company; he ran the boat among some leaning trees, and came near raking all the horses overboard; succeeded in getting one over (which was lost). Directly the boat touched shore he and his negroes ran off, leaving the boat loose. The night being so very dark, it was impossible to shoot them. Some of the men caught the boat and brought it over, and the rest of us succeeded in getting across. We then set it adrift. Respectfully,
JOHN H. MORGAN, Commanding Squadron
Other Union activity reported on this date:
1. Secretary Stanton writes out an order for the arrest of C.P. Stone, who is being investigated by the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War about his role in the defeat at Ball’s Bluff (VA).
2. Flag-Officer A.H. Foote and U.S. Grant request “permission” to attack Fort Henry (TN). Foote writes, “[We] are of opinion that Fort Henry…can be carried with four ironclad gunboats.”
3. Q.A. Gillmore conducts a scout of Jones Island (GA) and reports a battery can be constructed at the mouth of the Savannah River.
4. From Fort Leavenworth (KS), Chief Hopoeithleyohola, Creek Nation and Chief Aluktustenuke, Seminole Nation, write to President Lincoln asking that Kansas Senator J. Lane be “placed in command” of the upcoming expedition into Kansas.
5. H.G. Wright’s expeditionary force observes five gunboats coming down the Savannah River (GA).
6. Boat crews from the U.S.S. DeSoto capture the blockade-runner Major Barbour at Isle Derneire (LA), with a cargo of gunpowder, niter, sulpher, percussion caps, and lead.
Other Confederate activity reported on this date:
1. J.E. Johnston complains about being ordered to send 6,000 muskets, “belonging to our absent [men],” to Richmond (VA). He writes: “This deprives the different regiments of the means of arming their men who return from the hospitals.”
2. From New Orleans (LA), M. Lovell sends “200,000 cartridges, 400 double-barreled shotguns, and 16 tons of lead” to Bowling Green (KY). He writes: “I will also send…five Mississippi companies...as soon as I can have them put through the measles; a process which they are now undergoing, one-half of them now being sick.”
3. Sterling Price, M.S.G., sends muster rolls to Richmond (VA), for “two regiments of infantry, one regiment of cavalry, and two companies of artillery.”
4. The C.S.S. Virginia, until recently known as the U.S.S. Merrimack, reaches Hampton Roads, a channel just before Chesapeake Bay where the Nansemond, James and Elizabeth rivers.
January 29, 1862 (Wednesday)
Confederate President Jefferson Davis decides to get personally involved in the Jackson-Loring dispute as he directs Secretary Benjamin to act promptly: “Withdraw Loring from Romney.” In addition, Joseph E. Johnston sends Lieutenant-Colonel George W. Lay, Inspector General, Department of Northern Virginia, “to see and report without delay the condition of Major-General Jackson's troops.”
RICHMOND, VA., January 29[?], 1862
SECRETARY OF WAR: It will be necessary to act promptly. Have you been notified of the return of General Jackson to Winchester and the withdrawal of the brigade with which he undertook the service from which he is reported to have retired, leaving only those who were sent to re-enforce him?
J.D. [DAVIS]
Captain William S. Oliver, Seventh Missouri (U.S.), leads an expedition in an attempt to capture the notorious partisan ranger William C. Quantrill and his “gang of robbers” near Independence, Missouri. Oliver succeeds in killing six of Quantrill's men, but the ex-school teacher escapes. Oliver reports: “Quantrill will not leave this section unless he is chastised and driven from it. I hear of him tonight 15 miles from here, with new recruits, committing outrages on Union men, a large body of whom have come in tonight, driven out by him.”
Report of Capt. William S. Oliver, Seventh Missouri Infantry.
GENERAL: I have seen this infamous scoundrel rob mails, steal the coaches and horses, and commit other similar outrages upon society even within sight of this city.... I mounted a company of my command and went to Blue Springs. The first night there myself, with 5 men, were ambushed by him and fired upon. We killed 2 of his men (of which he had 18 or 20) and wounded a third. The next day we killed 4 more of the worst of the gang, and before we left succeeded in dispersing them. I obtained 6 or 7 wagon loads of pork and a quantity of tobacco, hidden and preserved for the use of the Southern Army, and recovered also the valuable stage-coach, with 2 of their horses.
W.S. OLIVER, Captain, Comdg. Detached Battalion Seventh Mo. Vols.
From Savannah, Georgia, Robert E. Lee, District of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, reports on the Union excursion along the coast of South Carolina at Wall's Cut. According to Lee, “this cut is the pass between Daufuskie River and Wright River, in South Carolina, and forms part of the inland communication between Savannah River and Port Royal Harbor.” Inland communication to Fort Pulaski, which guards Savannah, will be threatened if the Union ships succeed in passing through the Cut.
Report of General Robert E. Lee, C.S. Army.
GENERAL: It was discovered that the enemy were at work removing the obstructions placed in Wall's Cut.... Day before yesterday seven of the enemy's gunboats were discovered at Wall's Cut and six in Wilmington Narrows. They had reached the obstructions in each stream, and were apparently endeavoring to work through.... If the enemy succeed in removing the obstacles in Wall's Cut and Wilmington Narrows, there is nothing to prevent their reaching the Savannah River, and we have nothing afloat that can contend against them. I am, &c.,
R.E. LEE, General, Commanding.
Other Union activity reported on this date:
1. G.B. McClellan reports a deserter “just in” says “that Beauregard was under order to go to Kentucky with fifteen regiments.”
2. U.S. Grant repeats his request for permission to attack Fort Henry. He writes: “If this is not done soon there is but little doubt but that the defenses on both the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers will be materially strengthened.”
3. A.E. Burnside informs H.W. Halleck that “all the necessary arrangements for a considerable movement” have been made, and that he will “at once make an advance upon Roanoke Island (NC).”
4. Frederick Steele is appointed brigadier-general in the Union Army.
Other Confederate activity reported on this date:
1. G.T. Beauregard is ordered “to assume command” at Columbus (KY).
2. Earl Van Dorn officially assumes command of the Trans-Mississippi District.
3. The schooner Stephen Hart, of Liverpool, England, is captured south of Sarasota (FL), with a cargo of arms and munitions.
4. A skirmish takes place at Lee’s House near the Occoquan Bridge (VA).
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