8 Mar, 1862: Saturday

Union - Government
In Washington, President Lincoln conferred with GEneral McClellan over his planned move via Aquia Creek or the Peninsula southeast of Richmond, and also met with division commanders, who voted in favor of McClellan's plan.

The President provided in General War Order No. 2 that sufficient forces be left to defend Washington while McClellan made his move to the Peninsula.

The news of the destruction at Hampton Roads was telegraphed to Washington, causing great consternation.

Military - Union
Arkansas
Union troops commanded by General Curtis drive the Confederates from Pea Ridge in what was really the third day of the battle near Elkhorn Tavern. Van Dorn's Confederates retreated toward the Arkansas River. (They will arrive at Hunstville, Arkansas on 9 March, and then move on to Van Vuren, Arkansas.

The Confederate leaders knew this probably meant the permanent loss of Mississippi, and that they would also be hampered in their attempts to maintain the Mississippi River. (This will be the last major offensive of the South in the Trans-Mississippi until 1864.)

For Genral Curtis, this is the high point of the war. He and his outnumbered army had fought well. The Union had about 11,000 troops with 203 killed, 908 wounded, and 201 missing or captured. Van Dorn had 14,000 troops, with probably 600 killed and wounded, and 200 captured or missing.

Virginia
Union forces occupied Leesburg.

Missouri
There is a skirmish around Rolla.

Kentucky
William Sherman's division embarked at Paducah, Kentucky for its trip to Tennesse.

Confederate - Naval
Virginia
In Hampton Roads (the confluence of five rivers), the "clumsy, ill-engined, but heavily armored CSS Virginia (the re-furbished USS Merrimack, that had been ineptly scuttled by the US when they abandoned the Norfolk Naval Yard, steamed out of Norfolk Haror, under command of Flag Officer Franklin Buchanan. Opposed to the iron-clad Merrimack were the traditional fleet - including the forty-gun screw frigates Roanoke, and Minnesota, the frigate Congress, fifty guns, and the sloop Cumberland, twenty-four guns.

The Merrimack rammed the Cumberland and forced the badly damaged Congress aground. The Minnesota was damaged.

Buchanan was wounded, and Lieutenant Catesby ap Roger Jones took over. The Virginiareturned to Norfolk harbor that evening, intending to finish off the job the next morning.

In the evening, the Union ironclad, USS Monitor, which had departed from New York some days ago, arrived.

Confederate - Army
Tennessee
Confederate calvary under John Hunt Morgan raided suburbs of Nashville.

Chattanooga is occupied by Confederate forces.

Confederate E. Kirby Smith reached Knoxville and assumed command of troops in east Tennessee.

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