October 1, 1861 Tuesday
President Davis, Generals Joseph E. Johnston, Beauregard, and G.W. Smith held a conference on grand strategy at Centreville, Virginia; early in the month. The main topic was the future of the army in Virginia and what it should or should not do. Recognizing the cry of the populace for an offensive, it was finally decided that the Confederate Army could not be reinforced and supplied sufficiently to invade the North and would have to await Union attack and the distant spring. While the generals advised concentration in Virginia, it was recognized that politically, as well as militarily, the Confederacy had to defend numerous points on its vast frontier.
Confederate naval forces, including C.S.S. Curlew, Raleigh, and Junaluska, under flag Officer William F. Lynch, CSN, captured steamer Fanny (later C.S.S. Fanny) in Pamlico Sound with 31 Union troops on board. Colonel Claiborne Snead, CSA, reported: "The victory was important in more respects than one. It was our first naval success in North Carolina and the first capture made by our arms of an armed war-vessel of the enemy, and dispelled the gloom of recent disasters. The property captured [two rifled guns and large amount of army stores] was considerable, much needed, and highly esteemed . . ."
Secretary Welles, in a letter to Secretary Seward, opposed issuing letters of marque because it would be "a recognition of the assumption of the insurgents that they are a distinct and independent nationality."
The Federal War Department created the Department of New England under command of Major General Benjamin F. Butler, which was mainly a mechanism for recruiting troops to be used in future expeditions; in this case it turned out to be the New Orleans campaign force.
President Lincoln wrote a memo (
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/te ... ln4%3A1034 ) calling for a movement into east Tennessee and toward Cumberland Gap, with particular attention to the railroad connecting Virginia and Tennessee. He also asked for an expedition on the east coast which became the Port Royal operation of November. Meanwhile, the Federal Cabinet met with Generals Scott and McClellan. President Lincoln is reading Moncure D. Conway's book, "The Rejected Stone: or Insurrection vs. Resurrection in America," sent to him by Sen. Sumner (Mass.).
The following appointments were made to Brigadier General: John Gray Foster, USA; James Scott Negley, USA; Lovell Harrison Rousseau, USA; and Nelancthon Smith Wade, USA.