Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable
January 1, 1862 - Confederate agents Slidell and Mason sail for Halifax en route to England
January 1, 1862 - George B. McClellan, General in Chief of the Union Army, continues his inactivity causing President Lincoln more anguish over the slow movement. McClellan is ill and does not answer Lincoln's telegraphs.
January 1, 1862 - General Thomas J. Jackson breaks his winter camp and moves his Stonewall Brigade and General William Loring's 8,500 troops toward Romney in western Virginia. Soon after leaving their Winchester, Virginia area encampments, the temperature falls and the troops suffer severely.
January 3, 1862 - Confederate President Davis is upset over the loss of Ship's Island, Mississippi and its probable effect on the ability of the South to hold New Orleans.
January 3, 1862 - Confederates under General Jackson continue a move up the Shenandoah Valley and plan the destruction of the B&O Railroad in western Virginia.
January 4, 1862 - Jackson's troops control the town of Bath, western Virginia.
January 5, 1862 - General Jackson's artillery bombards Union positions around Hancock, Maryland before seeking winter shelter and establishing a new winter camp.
January 6, 1862 - General in Chief McClellan is diagnosed as having typhoid fever. President Lincoln ignores radical Republican senators calling for replacement of McClellan.
January 6, 1862 - The Union Navy is critically short of manpower and Commodore Andrew H. Foote suggests drafting soldiers. The U.S. Army is reluctant but General Ulysses S. Grant recommends that guardhouse soldiers be moved to help the Navy.
January 7, 1862 - General Thomas Jackson remains intent on the capture of Romney, western Virginia, which is the key position controlling the South Branch Valley of the Potomac River. Troops are moved from their temporary winter camp at Hancock, Maryland toward Romney but encounter the Union Army at Blue Gap and are scattered. The Union also takes possession of two Confederate cannons.
January 7, 1862 - The Federal gunboat U.S.S. Conestoga returns from a reconnaissance of Confederate Fort Donelson, Tennessee. In a report to Commodore Foote, Donelson is described as well positioned with intrinsic strength and a danger to naval assault.
