Nov. 1, 1861

Nov. 1, 1861: Lt. Gen. Winfield Scott, the 74-year-old general-in-chief of the Army, resigns his post in favor of retirement. Scott, a Virginian who remained loyal to the Union, was a hero of the War of 1812 and of the Mexican War. Pres. Lincoln then appoints 34-year-old Maj. Gen. Geroge Brinton McClellan as General-in-Chief. McClellan has won a few facile victories in western Virginia (although never present on the battlerfield himself), currently commands the Army of the Potomac, and has been actively campaigning behind Scott’s back to get him retired and take his post.
--In western Virginia, Gen. John B. Floyd’s Confederate troops, in a bid to recover the western part of the state, clash for three days with Gen. William S. Rosecrans’ Federal troops, at Gaulery Bridge and Cotton Hill, but are driven back by the Federal troops.
--Off Cape Hatteras, the armada of invasion under Du Pont and Sherman is battered by gale-force winds, scattering the fleet. The USS Sabine is lost in the storm. The fleet limps on to its destination.
--Rev. Overton Bernard, a Methodist minister from Edenton, North Carolina, writes in his diary:

Friday 1st November-We have met with a defeat at Romney, Virginia, some six hundred of our troops being attacked by five or six thousand Lincolnites and compelled to retreat with loss.
   The minions of Lincoln are pressing onward and it is thought they will attempt to invade Virginia and Tennessee from Cumberland Gap.–May they be thwarted.
   A day or two since a formidable fleet left Hampton Roads fifty or sixty vessels including transports–it is thought it is intended to make a most formidable demonstration on some point of our Southern coast.
   Today has been lowering, and tonight between eight and nine o’clock the wind is blowing strongly and increasing. For this I feel thankful, and whilst I would not indulge in a spirit of Vengence, I will humbly invoke the Lord who tempers the Wind to the shorn Lamb, to cause His Winds to blow with violence upon a Fleet sent forth by unprincipled and ungodly Men, filled with hypocrisy and cruel Wrath, and who trample on Laws human and divine, in their unholy Warfare–May disaster befall their Ships and their schemes fail.