September 17, 1861
- Judah P. Benjamin, Confederate Attorney General, and a man with no military experience, becomes Confederate Secretary of War. He will become embroiled in difficulties with a number of generals and be blamed for the loss of Roanoke Island off North Carolina in the next year. His Jewish ancestry makes him a target for anti-Semitism.
A Chronological History of the Civil War in America1
- Skirmish at Blue Mills Landing, Mo. Union troops repulsed.
- Bridge on the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, near Huron, broke through while a train of cars with the Illinois 19th Regiment was passing over; 26 were killed and 112 wounded.
- Skirmish at Mariatown, Mo.
- A Chronological History of the Civil War in America by Richard Swainson Fisher, New York, Johnson and Ward, 1863