As his troops were set in motion for a massive attack on Federal forces at Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River, Confederate commanding general Albert Sidney Johnston reorganized his manpower into three new corps to be commanded by generals Leonidas Polk, Braxton Bragg, and William Hardee.  Major General Pierre Beauregard was named as overall second in command.  Within days Beauregard was commanding as Johnston was killed on the first day of the massive battle that ensued at "Bloody Shiloh."  (By John Osborne)

English-born Timothy Webster, a New York City policeman, had become one of Allan Pinkerton's espionage operatives early in the war and had gathered and passed information in Baltimore and Richmond while posing as a southern gentleman.  Falling ill in Richmond in early February, he had been betrayed and arrested in late March 1862.  After a three week trial in Richmond, Webster became the first spy executed during the war despite all efforts and threats of retaliation from the Union.  He was hanged at the old fairgrounds outside Richmond.  (By John Osborne) 

Following a series of highly encouraging advances, and with "the force now in the field deemed amply sufficient for the suppression of the rebellion and the termination of the war," Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton issued a general order suspending all further army recruiting efforts and directed all offices closed and recruiters to return to their regiments. Considered in hindsight a serious error, especially when Confederate counterattacks took hold and the march on Richmond failed, the action hampered enlistment efforts for the remainder of the war.  (By John Osborne) 

In the midst of a violent storm, forty men of the 42nd Illinois in five boats from Commodore A.H. Foote's squadron made a daring overnight raid on the upper defences of the Confederate installations at Island Number 10 in the Mississippi River near New Madrid, Missouri.  Overrunning one of the outlying forts, the force, under Colonel George W. Roberts, spiked the six heavy guns there and returned without suffering casualties. Hailed as a hero across the North, Roberts was later killed in action with his regiment on New Year's Eve, 1862. (By John Osborne)

The U.S. Senate took up and passed the joint resolution President Lincoln had suggested a few weeks before to encourage an eventual end to slavery.  The "resolution declaring that Congress cooperate by affording pecuniary aid to any state which may adopt a gradual abolishment of slavery" passed on a 32-10 vote with six senators not voting. Among Democrats, only Garret Davis of Kentucky and John of New Jersey voted in favor.