August 17, 1861, Saturday

Washington, DC
Federal departments of Northeastern Virginia, of Washington, and of the Shenandoah were merged into the Department of the Potomac. This is why the name of the main Northern army in Virginia was called the Army of the Potomac.

President Lincoln appoints Henry Wager Halleck a major general in the regular Army and also secretly provided for a commission as Brigadier General of Volunteers for Simon Bolivar Buckner of Kentucky. Buckner declined and will later join the Confederate army.

Major General John E. Wool supersedes Benjamin F. Butler in command of the Department of Virginia. Butler will go on to head forces organizing to attack the Cape Hatteras area.

Orders are issued providing for 40 cents a day and one ration for nurses in the Northern Army.

Hunnewell, Palmyra
There is minor fighting here.

Brunswick, Missouri
There is minor fighting here.


Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De CApo, 1971