ON THIS DAY: Saturday, Nov. 2, 1861

A pleased Rutherford B. Hayes writes “Dearest Lucy” that he has been promoted to the lieutenant colonelcy (second in command) of his regiment, the 23^rd Ohio. “I confess to the weakness of preferring…to be called Colonel to being styled Major,” he writes.

Hayes goes on to describe “a noisy day yesterday.” Confederates on the other side of the river near his camp fired cannon and musketry at Hayes’ men, who returned the fire for several hours. Hayes surmises little damage was suffered by either side. As usual, Hayes enjoyed the experience: “I wish you could see such a battle,” he tells Lucy, who probably had no interest in doing so. “No danger and yet enough sense of peril excited to make all engaged very enthusiastic," Hayes writes. "The echoes of the cannon and the bursting shells through the mountain defiles were wonderful.”

Maj. Gen John C. Frémont is removed from command of the Western Department today after a brief career as a flashy, self-indulgent, ineffectual leader of soldiers. Frémont liked Grant’s plans for invading the South, but now Maj. Gen. David Hunter temporarily will replace Frémont as Grant’s superior officer—and Grant’s ambitions will be placed on hold. In any case, Grant has enough to do at the moment, with the persistently annoying Jeff Thompson staging raids on various Union points in southeastern Missouri. Orders flow out from Grant’s headquarters