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General Pope Scatters and Captures Secessionists in Missouri
December 18, 1861 (Wednesday) Four thousand poorly-equipped Rebel recruits of the Missouri State Guard, only half of which were armed, were hardly a match for Union General John Pope’s troops, who...
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Davis Has Empty Words for Sterling Price; Wise Has a New Job
December 21, 1861 (Saturday) In Missouri, General Sterling Price had not been feeling very loved by the Confederate Government. His command, the Missouri State Guards, was still an independent command...
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Halleck Orders All Rebel Bridge Burners to be Shot on Sight
December 22, 1861 (Sunday) Like the Confederates in Eastern Tennessee, Union General Henry Halleck, commander of the Department of Missouri, was not going to allow his enemies to burn bridges and get...
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Washington Officially Given Seven Days to Release Mason & Slidell
December 23, 1861 (Monday) It was a very mild day for being so deep into December. In fact, the past week had been pleasantly dry and warm in Washington. For President Lincoln and his Cabinet, the...
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No Rest and Little Celebration for Christmas 1861
December 25, 1861 (Wednesday – Christmas) For some, the first Christmas of the war was a time of rest, where drills and military formalities took a short day off. Around Washington, the mood was full...
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Rare Mercy from Jefferson Davis Saves the Life of a Unionist
December 27, 1861 (Friday) Perhaps it was the Yuletide spirit, still lingering jubilant in the air of the Confederacy, that tricked the fate of Harrison Self, an Eastern Tennessee bridge burner who had...
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Mt. Zion Church: Clearing Out Resistance in Northern Missouri
December 28, 1861 (Saturday) Two days before Christmas, the commander of Union forces in Missouri, General Henry Halleck, began to crack down upon secessionist bridge burners in the northern part of...
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Burnside Plans His Own Amphibious Assault; Buell Has a Better Idea in Kentucky
December 29, 1861 (Sunday) Since the Union defeat at the Battle of Bull Run, Ambrose Burnside had been promoted from colonel to brigadier-general and placed in command of the rawest recruits in the...
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Being Thus Forsaken: Was Davis Ignoring Missouri?
December 30, 1861 (Monday) The one thing that Missouri needed, believed General Sterling Price, was the Confederate Army. Price, the commander of the secessionist Missouri State Guard, had pleaded for...
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Jackson’s Saucer is Full of Secrets; Lincoln Must Command
December 31, 1861 (New Year’s Eve – Tuesday) This had certainly been a strange year for Thomas J. Jackson. At its start, he was a professor at the Virginia Military Institute, under the immediate...
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