US Army changes & NC Stone Fleet ready
- In
Washington, President Lincoln orders
a commission for Kentuckian Simon Bolivar Buckner as brigadier general of
volunteers (which he will refuse in preference for a Confederate general’s
commission), and George Thomas of
Virginia is appointed US brigadier general of volunteers, Army of the
Cumberland. US General Wool takes command at Fortress Monroe, Virginia,
superseding Benjamin Butler. In a reorganization, the US Departments of
Northeastern Virginia, Washington (DC), and the Shenandoah are merged into
the US Department of the Potomac, officially forming the Union Army of the
Potomac, which would commit most of the bloodshed in the Eastern Theater
of the war. Maj. Gen. Henry “Old Brains” Halleck is made commander of the
new Department of the Potomac. Today also Lincoln watches another
exhibition of J. D. Mills' gun, dubbed by Lincoln "coffee mill gun,”
near the Washington Monument and advises the government to pay double the
sum that mechanics say it is worth if delivered in 30 days. /1861
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North Carolina coast
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US Lieutenant Reigart B. Lowry
writes US Assistant Secretary of the Navy Gustavus V. Fox regarding the progress for
sinking a stone fleet to block the inlets to the North Carolina sounds:
"We have nineteen schooners properly loaded with stone, and all our
preparations are complete to divide them in two divisions and place them
in tow of this steamer [Adelaide] and of the Governor Peabody.
I think all arrangements are complete, as far as being prepared to 'sink
and obstruct' . . . the obstructing party could place their vessels in
position, secure them as we propose, by binding chains, spars on end in
the sand to settle by action of the tide, anchors down, and finally sink
them in such a way as to block the channel so effectually that there could
be no navigation through them for several months to come, at least till by
the aid of our new gunboats the outside blockade could be effectual."/1861- Skirmish
at Brunswick, Missouri./1861
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