Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable
February 26, 1862 - Ambrose P. Hill becomes a brigadier general, CSA.
February 27, 1862 - Confederate President Davis suspends writs of habeas corpus as a wartime expedient. Lincoln had done the same thing in April 1861 around Washington and extended the suspension up the East Coast to Maine in October 1861.
February 27, 1862 - Martial Law is declared in Norfolk and Portsmouth, Virginia as Union forces approach.
February 27, 1862 - Departure of the USS Monitor is delayed due to shortage of ammunition and steering failure. In the South, the CSS Monitor is delayed by powder shortages.
February 28, 1862 - General Joseph E. Johnston is advised by President Jefferson Davis to formulate contingency plans for safe troop and material evacuation from Virginia.
February 28, 1862 - At Harper's Ferry, Union forces fail to cross the Potomac and to move against Confederate troops as planned. They failed because pontoon boats were too wide to fit through canal locks and therefore could not be positioned for the crossing.
February 28, 1862 - Federal troops occupy Charleston in western Virginia.
February 28, 1862 - Union General John Pope moves the Army of the Mississippi down river toward New Madrid where 7,500 Confederate Troops are stationed. The Confederate force is commanded by General John P. McCown and has 19 heavy guns mounted plus a flotilla of gunboats.
February 28, 1862 - Confederate forces capture Tucson in the New Mexico Territory. Locals quickly elect a delegation to attend the Confederate Congress meeting in Richmond.
March 1, 1862 - Confederate General John H. Winder declares Martial Law in Richmond.
March 1, 1862 - General Ulysses S. Grant is ordered by General Halleck, commanding the Department of the West, to cross the Tennessee River and move against Eastport, Mississippi.
March 1, 1862 - General P.G.T. Beauregard begins to form a Confederate line from Columbus, Kentucky, past Island No. 10 on the Mississippi River and Fort Pillow on the Tennessee River, all the way to Corinth, Mississippi. At the same time, General Albert Sidney Johnston begins to move from Murfreesboro, Tennessee to Corinth, Mississippi.
March 1, 1862 - Commodore Foote directs the USS Lexington and the USS Tyler to engage Confederate batteries at Pittsburgh Landing, Tennessee. Commodore Foote forbids any naval personnel from going ashore after some casualties occur as sailors and army sharpshooters land to scout the position.
March 1, 1862 - The USS Mount Vernon captures the British Queen, a British blockade-runner off Wilmington, North Carolina.
March 2, 1862 - General Leonidas Polk moves 140 cannons from the strong Confederate position at Columbus, Kentucky to New Madrid, Missouri and Island No. 10, across the Mississippi River. The Confederate line that at one time was as far east as the Cumberland Gap and reached to the Mississippi River has now moved south.
March 3, 1862 - U.S. Assistant Adj. General N. H. McLean issues a warning to St. Louis that any members of Confederate guerrilla bands "will be hung as robbers and murderers."
March 3, 1862 - John Bell Hood is appointed brigadier general, CSA.
March 3, 1862 - General Robert E. Lee is recalled from Charleston, South Carolina to Richmond, Virginia to act as an advisor to President Jefferson Davis.
March 3, 1862 - General Henry Halleck orders General Ulysses S. Grant held at Fort Henry, Tennessee under accusation of sloppy administration.
March 3, 1862 - General Pope and 18,000 Union Army of the Mississippi soldiers begin a siege operation against New Madrid, Missouri.
