On This Day - 16th March Prev / Next
Saturday March 16 1861
- The Arizona (Territory) State Convention held at Mesilla, votes to leave the Union.
Sunday March 16 1862
- Action at Pound Gap, KY, with Brig. Gen. James A. Garfield, USA, and Brig. Gen. Humphrey Marshall, CSA.
- Skirmish near Marshall, MO.
- Skirmish near Pittsburg Landing, or Black Jack Forest, TN.
Monday March 16 1863
- Philip Henry Sheridan, U.S.A., is appointed Maj. Gen.
- The following are appointed Union Brigadier Generals:
- Joseph Andrew Jackson Lightburn, USA
- Joseph Anthony Mower, USA
- Thomas Church Haskell Smith, USA
- Federal expedition from Jackson to Trenton, TN. (Mar 16-18)
- The Confederate Cavalry commands of Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn and Brig. Gen. Joseph Wheeler, CSA, are designated as the Confederate Army Corps, of the Army of Tennessee.
Wednesday March 16 1864
- Maj. Gen. Sterling Price, CSA, supersedes Lieut. Gen. Theophilus H. Holmes, CSA, in the command of the District of Arkansas.
- Skirmish near Palatka, FL, with Brig. Gen. Truman Seymour, USA, commanding the District of Florida.
- Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks, USA, occupies Alexandria, LA, on the Red River, with the assistance of nine Union ironclads and gunboats, under Admiral David Porter, USN.
- Brig. Gen. Orlando B. Willcox, USA, resumes the command of the 9th US Army Corps, enroute to Annapolis, MD.
- Federal scout from Pilot Knob, MO, through Barnesville, to the Arkansas line, and skirmishes with guerrillas. (Mar 16-25)
- Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest's, CSA, Confederate Expedition into West Tennessee and Kentucky. (Mar 6-Apr 14)
- Confederate raid on the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, near Tullahoma, TN, with the Rebel capture and destruction of a train of freight cars heavily laden with supplies for the Federal army at Chattanooga, with 60 Federal prisoners and about 20 Yankee Negroes killed, during Col. John M. Hughs', CSA, Confederate operations in Middle Tennessee.
- Skirmish at Santa Rosa, TX.
- Affair near Annandale, VA, where a Rebel party capture a couple of Union stragglers; the Federals escape by killing the Rebel guards.
- Skirmish at Bristoe Station, VA.
- Federal reconnaissance from Harper's Ferry, WV, toward Snicker's Gap, VA, meeting up with a couple of Lieut. Col. John S. Mosby's Partisan Rangers with little action. (Mar 16-18)
- Federal scout in Cabell and Wayne Counties, WV, including to Barboursville and Wayne Court-House. (Mar 16-18)
Thursday March 16 1865
- The Battle of Averasborough (or Taylor's Hole Creek), NC, between Maj. Gen. Henry W. Slocum's column of Sherman's Army, and Lieut. Gen. William J. Hardee, CSA; Hardee withdrawing toward Bentonville, NC, to join up with the main body of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's Confederate Army. Total casualties approximate 1,550.
- Skirmish at Little Cohera Creek, NC.
- Gen. Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, CSA, is announced as 2nd in command of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's Confederate Army, NC.
- Lieut. Gen. Alexander P. Stewart, CSA, is assigned to the command of the infantry and artillery of the Army of Tennessee.
- Federal scout from near Winchester to Front Royal, VA.
- Federal scout from Summit Point, through Kabletown and Myerstown, to the Shenandoah Ferry, WV. (Mar 16-17)
On This Day information kindly provided by Martin Cross, 2nd U.S. Artillery, Bty B.