The American Civil War (1860-1865)
1860 - U.S. Census. U.S. population: 31,443,321. Total number of slaves in the Lower South : 2,312,352 (47% of total population). Total number of slaves in the Upper South: 1,208758 (29% of total population). Total number of slaves in the Border States: 432,586 (13% of total population). Almost one-third of all Southern families owned slaves. In Mississippi and South Carolina it approached one half. The total number of slave owners was 385,000 (including, in Louisiana, some free Negroes). As for the number of slaves owned by each master, 88% held fewer than twenty, and nearly 50% held fewer than five. The geographical center of the United States lies somewhere near Chillicothe, Ohio. New York City became the largest Irish city in the world with 203,740 Irish-born out of a total population of 805,651.
January 25, 1860 - The Fire-Eaters. In a speech to the House of Representatives, Lawrence M. Keitt, Congressman from South Carolina, declares: "African slavery is the corner-stone of the industrial, social, and political fabric of the South; and whatever wars against it, wars against her very existence. Strike down the institution of African slavery and you reduce the South to depopulation and barbarism . . . The anti-slavery party contend that slavery is wrong in itself, and the Government is a consolidated national democracy. We of the South contend that slavery is right, and that this is a confederate Republic of sovereign States." Keitt is among a group of radical sectionalists ("Fire-Eaters") whose ready acceptance of secession materially contributed to the outbreak of the Civil War. Others included William L. Yancey, Edmund Ruffin, Robert Rhett, Louis T. Wigfall, Nathaniel Beverly Tucker, John A. Quitman, William Porcher Miles, and James Dunwoody Brownson DeBow, publisher of DeBow's Review.
February 24, 1860 - Alabama's Joint Resolutions on Secession. The General Assemby of Alabama passes Joint Resolutions, to take effect the election of a Republican to the presidency, including a call for a convention "to consider, determine and do whatever in the opinion of said Convention, the rights, interests, and honor of the State of Alabama requires to be done for their protection."
February 27, 1860 - Lincoln's Speech at Cooper Institute. Abraham Lincoln addresses gathering at the Cooper Institute in New York, attacking slavery and insisting that the Federal government has "the power of restraining the extension of the institution."
March 6, 1860 - Lincoln's Speech at New Haven. Abraham Lincoln gives speech in New Haven, Connecticut: "Whether we will or not, the question of Slavery is the question, the all absorbing topic of the day. It is true that all of us—and by that I mean, not the Republican party alone, but the whole American people, here and elsewhere—all of us wish this question settled, wish it out of the way".
March-June, 1860 - First Japanese Embassy arrives in San Francisco on March 9 en route to Washington D.C. Japan's Tokugawa government had sent its first official envoys to exchange treaty ratifications based on agreements concluded in 1858 between Townsend Harris—the first American ambassador to Japan (appointed U.S. Consul to Japan in 1854 after Commodore Perry's opening of Japan)—and the Japanese government. The Powhatan carried the seventy-plus Japanese delegation, with its two principal ambassadors, Masaoki Shinmi and Norimasa Muragaki, on to Panama where the delegation crossed the Isthmus of Panama by train, and once again, set sail for Washington, D.C. The arrival of the Japanese was a major event in America. The U.S. Congress provided a $50,000 budget to entertain the envoys—a considerable sum at that time. In the course of their travels, the delegation spent three weeks sightseeing in Washington before making official visits to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and finally New York. While in Washington D.C., the mission paid its official visit to President James Buchanan at the White House, reviewed troops and were entertained by military brass bands. They also visited a session of Congress whose noisy atmosphere, as Ambassador Muragaki humorously remarked, "resembled somewhat that of our fish market at Nihonbashi." At the end of June 1860, the Japanese envoys departed on the ship Niagara to make their return journey to Japan.
March 21, 1860 - U.S. signs extradition treaty with Sweden.
April, 1860 - Seventh Inning Stretch. Baseball's ritual for relieving spectator fatigue—the "7th-inning stretch"—was commonly adopted. The custom had superstitious origins. It was thought to bring good luck to the home team, since "7" was a winning number at dice.
April 3, 1860 - The Pony Express began fast overland mail service, operating between St. Joseph, Mo., and Sacramento, Calif. It offered 8-10-day delivery, with an "emergency" time of 7 days, 7 hours. Riders changed horses at 153 stations, spaced from 7 to 20 mi. apart. The route followed the old emigrant trail to the Platte River, through South Pass to Fort Bridger in Wyoming, then south around the lower end of the Great Salt Lake to Carson City, Nev., and through Donner Pass to Sacramento. Financially, the service was a failure and ended in October 1861, after completion of transcontinental telegraph line. Letters cost $5 an ounce to send, and took 17-18 days to travel nearly 2,000 miles between San Francisco, California, and St. Joseph, Missouri.
April 23-May 3, 1860 - Democratic Convention opens in Charleston, South Carolina. Shortly after the convention began on April 23, the Southern Democratic delegations began to press their long-rumored plan to walk out unless a plank calling for passage of a federal slave code for the territories was included in the party platform. Such a code, they hoped, would secure the practice of slavery not only in the North, but in the largely unsettled areas of the expanding nation. The Convention was deeply divided. Stephen Douglas was the clear favorite of Northen Democrats, while Southerners demanded that the Democratic party come out with a platform in clear defense of slavery. Southern delegates were already opposed to Douglas, the party's leading candidate, over his Freeport Doctrine—a concept Douglas put forth during the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 that a territory's failure to pass laws enforcing slavery would, by default, outlaw slavery in that territory. Moreover, the "fire-eaters" among the Southern Democrats actually wanted the Republican candidate to win the election, thus hastening the secession of the slave states. When Douglas' anti-slavery plank was finally voted into the platform over a previous vote in favor of a pro-slavery plank, 50 Southern delegates made good their promise and dramatically walked out of the convention. The loss of those 50 left the convention without enough delegates to give Douglas the nomination. The convention went through 54 ballots but Douglas failed to acheive the needed 2/3 of the votes. The remaining Northern Democrats voted to adjourn and reconvene in June in Baltimore.
May 9, 1860 - Constitutional Union Convention. The Constitutional Union Party, a short-lived political group, was a haven in the election of 1860 for Whigs and Know-Nothings unwilling to join northern or southern Democrats or the Republicans. The Constitutional Union party had its genesis in Democratic divisions over the Lecompton constitution, the collapse of the Whigs, and the problems of the American, or Know-Nothing party. The Whigs' collapse had left anti-Democratic southerners adrift without a political party. Senator John J. Crittenden of Kentucky, Henry Clay's successor in border-state Whiggery, set up a meeting among fifty conservative, pro-compromise congressmen in December 1859, which led to a convention in Baltimore on May 9, 1860. Its members nominated for president John Bell of Tennessee, a border-state Whig and large slaveholder who had opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Lecompton constitution, and for vice president Edward Everett, president of Harvard University and a former secretary of state and Cotton Whig in the Fillmore administration, on a platform of "the Union as it is and the Constitution as it is." Bell and Everett ran a lackluster campaign, winning only 39 of the possible 303 electoral votes. They carried the three border slave states of Virginia (15), Kentucky (12), and Tennessee (12). Bell and many other Constitutional Unionists later supported the South during the Civil War, and the party and its purpose disappeared.
May 18, 1860 - Republican Convention. The Republicans assembled their national convention in Chicago's "Wigwam" on May 16, 1860, a wooden building, constructed in only six weeks. The delegates considered three top candidates: William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, and Abraham Lincoln. Republican Party leadership of 1860 liked Lincoln's politically pristine background and "rail-splitter from a log cabin" image. They also saw Abe as the only candidate who could deliver votes from the "Old Northwest," which then included the state of Illinois. On the second evening of the convention, delegates were treated to a performance of the play Our American Cousin at Chicago's McVicker's Theater. In 1865, Lincoln would be assassinated while watching the same play in Ford's Theater. The delegates adopted a party platform considered more moderate than their 1856 effort. Slavery and polygamy were no longer referred to as "twin relics of barbarism," the raid of John Brown on Harper's Ferry was criticized, and economic issues were emphasized. Nominations were offered on the third day of the convention, May 18, 1860. After three ballots, none of the candidates had received the 233 votes needed for nomination. Lincoln came close (231 1/2 votes) and at that point, the Ohio delegates changed their four votes from Ohio favorite son, Salmon P. Chase to Lincoln, making Honest Abe the Republican presidential nominee.
June 18-23, 1860 - Democratic Convention. Democrats reconvene in Baltimore, Maryland. The adherents of Stephen A. Douglas complete the destruction begun at Charleston by refusing to seat the Yancey delegation from Alabama. Deep South delegates again withdraw from the Democratic Convention. (June 22). The Constitutional Democratic Party is organized under guidance of William L. Yancey, and John C. Breckinridge was nominated for the Presidency. The "Regular" Democrats nominate Douglas (June 23) and adopt the platform of the 1856 Cincinnati Convention with 6 additions: 1) that the Party will abide by the decisions of the Supreme Court on the powers of a Territorial Legislature and of Congress over the institution of slavery within the Territories; 2) that the United States afford protection to all its citizens, whether at home or abroad, and whether native or foreign born; 3) that Constitutional Government aid insure the construction of a Railroad to the Pacific coast at the earliest practicable period; 4) that the Island of Cuba be acquired on such terms as shall be honorable to ourselves and just to Spain; 5) that the enactments of the State Legislatures to defeat the faithful execution of the Fugitive Slave Law, are hostile in character, subversive of the Constitution, and revolutionary in their effect; and 6) that it is in accordance with the interpretation of the Cincinnati platform, that restrictions imposed by the Federal Constitution on the power of the Territorial Legislature over the subject of the domestic relations, as determined by the Supreme Court, should be respected by all good citizens, and enforced with promptness and fidelity by every branch of the general government.
June 23, 1860 - Congress establishes the Government Printing Office.
September 21, 1860 - Yancey's Equal Rights Speech. William Lowndes Yancey delivers his "Equal Rights in a Common Government" speech in Washington, D.C. The fiery Yancy says, "Revenues have been raised at the rate of two or three dollars in the South to one from any other section for the support of this great Government, but the South makes no complaint of mere dollars and cents. Touch not the honor of my section of the country, and she will not complain of almost anything else you may do; but touch her honor and equality and she will stand up in their defence, if necessary in arms. . . . No matter who may be elected, no matter what may be done, still they (the North) will stand to the Union as the great cause of their prosperity. . . ."
October 19, 1860 - Reagan's Letter Against the North. Rep. John H. Reagan of Texas publishes a letter pointing out, among other things, the Northern desire to "strike down the sovereignty and equality of the States," the taking of private property in slaves with no compensation, and the promotion of Hinton Rowan Helper's book The Impending Crisis of the South: How to Meet It (1857) which called for the abolition of slavery because it was retarding the economic development of the South and limiting the opportunities of its nonslaveholding white majority and recommends "treason, blood, and carnage as a proper campaign document" for the Republicans.
October 30, 1860 - Stephen Douglas, one of four presidential candidates, brought his campaign to Atlanta, where he spoke against secession.
November 5, 1860 - South Carolina Governor William H. Gist asks the legislature for a state convention if the Republicans win the election.
November 6, 1860 - Election of 1860. Abraham Lincoln is elected the 16th President of the United States defeating Stephen Douglas (Northern Democratic Party), John C. Breckinridge (Southern Democratic Party), and John Bell (Constitutional Unionist Party). Of the total 4,682,069 votes cast, Lincoln received 1,866,452 (39.9%). Lincoln won an overwhelming Electoral College victory: 180 of 303 possible electoral votes, but the eighteen states voting for him were all above the Mason/Dixon line. He received no electoral votes in 15 of the 33 states and his name did not even appear on the ballot in ten Southern states. Lincoln's opponents together totaled 2,815,617—almost a million votes more than he got. Lincoln's Vice President was Hannibal Hamlin of Maine.
November 7, 1860 - Joseph Brown's Message on Federal Relations. Georgia Governor Joseph E. Brown delivers his long Special Message on Federal Relations encouraging separate state action on secession rather than waiting for a convention of Southern states to jointly decide the issue. His message points out, among many positive issues, Southern economic strength and it ends with "To every demand for further concessions, or compromise of our rights, we should reply, 'The argument is exhausted,' and we now 'stand by our arms.'"
November 10, 1860 - South Carolina legislature approves bill calling for secession convention to begin December 17, 1860.
November 14, 1860 - Mississippi Gov. John J. Pettus issued a call for a special session of the legislature on November 26 "to consider necessary future safeguards for Mississippi."
November 20, 1860 - Georgia legislature approves bill for election of delegates to a secession convention to take place January 2, 1861, and convention January 16, 1861.
November 21-26, 1860 - Abraham Lincoln goes to Chicago from Springfield for five days to discuss cabinet appointments with his Vice-President Hannibal Hamlin.
November 26, 1860 - Mississippi Gov. John J. Pettus advises a secession convention be called, and a bill was passed dealing with elections of delegates, setting dates, etc.
December 3, 1860 - U.S. Congress Convenes. The 36th Congress of the United States, second session, begins in Washington, D.C
December 4, 1860 - Buchanan's Annual Message to Congress. President James Buchanan delivers his annual message to Congress, blaming fanatical abolitionism for destroying the country. He admits the sovereignty of each state but that the Federal Government would defend the forts if attacked. He said slavery was on the way out, and he proposed a constitutional amendment protecting property rights in slaves. He condemned secession and said the election of one of our countryman was no legitimate reason to leave the Union, but he admitted he had no power to coerce a state. William H. Seward writes to his wife that Buchanan showed "conclusively that it is the duty of the President to execute the laws—unless somebody opposes him; and that no State has a right to go out of the Union unless it wants to." The message was condemned in both the North and South—in the South, because the President condemned secession, and in the North, because he proposed no way to deal with it.
December 4, 1860 - The Committee of Thirty-three is created by the U. S. House of Representatives composed of one representative from each of the 33 states, to analyze the crisis. The Chairman of the Committee, Ohio Rep. Thomas Corwin, reports a slavery protection amendment on January 4, 1861, which was never ratified.
December 8, 1860 - South Carolina Representative Meet with Buchanan. A South Carolina delegation of U. S. House Representatives warns President Buchanan not to attempt reinforcement of Fort Sumter, which would be an act of coercion and war. The delegation presented Buchanan with a written statement promising not to attack the forts but admonishing him not to try to reinforce them. The South Carolinians got the impression there would be no change in the military situation in Charleston Harbor, and they promised to try and prevent any accidental confrontation. They implore him to negotiate with South Carolina Commissioners so the state could get title to all Federal property by paying for it. The South Carolina Representatives asked Buchanan not to make any change in the disposition of troops at Charleston, and particularly not to strengthen Sumter, a fortress on an island in the midst of the harbor, without at least giving notice to the state authorities. What was said in this interview was not put in writing but was remembered afterward in different ways with unfortunate consequences.
December 8, 1860 - Howell Cobb Resigns as Secretary of the Treasury. Howell Cobb, Sr., confronted with the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency, abandoned his faith in the Union, resigned as Buchanan's Secretary of the Treasury, and forcefully urged Georgia's secession.
December 10, 1860 - Lincoln wrote Sen. Lyman Trumbull: "Let there be no compromise on the question of extending slavery. If there be, all our labor is lost, and, ere long, must be done again. The dangerous ground—that into which some of our friends have a hankering to run—is Pop. Sov. Have none of it. Stand firm. The tug has to come, & better now, than any time hereafter."
December 10-12, 1860 - In response to Louisiana Governor Thomas O. Moore's request, the Louisiana legislature met in Baton Rouge and two days later, on December 12, 1860, passed a bill setting January 7, 1861, as the day to elect delegates, and January 23, 1861, as the date of a secession convention to be held in Baton Rouge.
December 13, 1860 - Southern Manifesto. Twenty-three representatives and seven senators from the South issue "a manifesto which urged secession and the organization of a Southern Confederacy." This Southern Manifesto was authored by Louis Trezevant Wigfall.
December 14, 1860 - The state of Georgia calls for a convention to discuss a Southern Confederacy. Only South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, and Alabama are invited.
December 17-20, 1860 - South Carolina Secession Convention. On December 17, 1860, the 169 delegates from the state of South Carolina convened at the Baptist Church in Columbia, but due to the presence of smallpox in Columbia, decide to reconvene the next day in Charleston. David F. Jamison opened the convention and his speech included: "I trust that the door is now forever closed to all further connection with our Northern confederates; for what guarantees can they offer us, more strictly guarded, or under higher sanctions, than the present written compact between us? And did that sacred instrument protect us from the jealousy and aggressions of the North, commenced forty years ago, which resulted in the Missouri Compromise? Did the Constitution protect us from the cupidity of the Northern people, who, for thirty-five years, have imposed the burden of supporting the General Government chiefly on the industry of the South?"
December 18, 1860 - Lincoln's Letter to Stephens. Abraham Lincoln writes Georgia's Alexander "Little Alec" Stephens, one of the South's most outspoken Unionists, to assure him that he (Lincoln) will not interfere with slavery in the South, directly or indirectly. Stephens continued to oppose separation right up to the time it became a fait accompli for Georgia in January 1861.
December 18, 1860 - Committee of Thirteen. A committee of the United States Senate was formed to investigate the possibility of a "plan of adjustment" that might solve the growing secession crisis, called the Committee of Thirteen because of the number of its members. The most prominent compromise was the submitted John J. Crittenden of Kentucky. Proposals for compromise were also submitted by committee members Robert Toombs of Georgia, Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, and William H. Seward of New York. However on the motion of Jefferson Davis, it was decided that no proposal would be reported as adopted unless supported by a majority of the Republicans and a majority of the Democrats serving on the committee. Under this restriction, the committee was unable to agree upon a satisfactory "plan of adjustment" and so reported to the Senate, on December 31, 1860.
December 18, 1860 - Crittenden Compromise. The Crittenden Compromise was one of several last-ditch efforts to resolve the secession crisis of 1860-61 by political negotiation. Authored by Kentucky Senator John J. Crittenden (whose two sons would become generals on opposite sides of the Civil War) it was an attempt to resolve the crisis by addressing the concerns that led the states of the Lower South to contemplate secession. The compromise contained preamble, six proposed constitutional amendments, and four proposed Congressional resolutions by which the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was, in effect, to be reenacted and extended to the Pacific; the federal government was to indemnify owners of fugitive slaves whose return was prevented by antislavery elements in the North; "squatter sovereignty" (the right to decide if slavery should exist or not) in the territories was to be sanctioned; and slavery in the District of Columbia was to be protected from congressional action. Crittenden's Compromise was submitted to the newly created Committee of Thirteen on December 20. On March 2, 1861, the Plan was narrowly defeated in the Senate. Two months earlier, Crittenden had introduced a resolution calling for a national referendum on these proposals, but the Senate never acted on this resolution.
December 18-20, 1860 - South Carolina Secedes from the Union, On December 18, South Carolina Secession Convention reconvenes in Institute Hall in Charleston. At 1:15 p.m. on December 20, all the attending delegates unanimously voted (169-0) for secession. At 7:00 p.m. that same day, the delegates marched into Institute Hall and began signing the Ordinance of Secession and after two hours, at 9:00 p.m., convention President David F. Jamison proclaimed "the State of South Carolina an independent commonwealth." The Ordinance adopted read: "We, the people of the State of South Carolina, in convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, That the ordinance adopted by us in convention on the twenty-third day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, whereby the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified, and also all acts and parts of acts of the General Assembly of this State ratifying amendments of the said Constitution, are hereby repealed; and that the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of the "United States of America," is hereby dissolved. Done at Charleston the 20th day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty. D.F. Jamison: Delegate from Barnwell and President of the Convention, and others." The Declaration of Secession for South Carolina states, "We affirm that these ends for which this Government was instituted have been defeated, and the Government itself has been made destructive of them by the action of the non-slaveholding States. Those States have assume the right of deciding upon the propriety of our domestic institutions; and have denied the rights of property established in fifteen of the States and recognized by the Constitution; they have denounced as sinful the institution of slavery; they have permitted open establishment among them of societies, whose avowed object is to disturb the peace and to eloign the property of the citizens of other States. They have encouraged and assisted thousands of our slaves to leave their homes; and those who remain, have been incited by emissaries, books and pictures to servile insurrection." South Carolina was followed out of the Union within two months by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas.
December 26, 1860 - South Carolina Calls for Southern Confederacy. The South Carolina Secession Convention proposes that a convention meet in Montgomery, Alabama, to create a constitution for the new Southern Confederacy.
December 26-27, 1860 - Anderson Transfers his Forces to Fort Sumter. Major Robert Anderson, commanding the federal forts in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, dismantles Fort Moultrie on the north side of the harbor, spikes its guns, and removes its garrison to the island stronghold Fort Sumter, which was supposed to be far more defensible. At Charleston his action was interpreted as preparation for war; and all South Carolinians saw in it a violation of a pledge which they believed President Buchanan had given their congressmen, three weeks previous, in that talk which had not been written down. After South Carolina troops seize Fort Moultrie on December 27, Buchanan announces that Fort Sumter will be defended against attack and orders a ship to sail there with supplies.
December 27, 1860 - Kentucky Governor Magoffin calls special secession of the legislature to meet January 17, 1861, to discuss federal relations.
December 27-28, 1860 - South Carolina Commissioners Meet with Buchanan. Commissioners from South Carolina "empowered to treat . . . for the delivery of forts . . . and other real estate" held by the Federal Government within their State arrive in Washington, D.C. Greatly excited and fearful of designs against them, the South Carolina commissioners held two conferences with President Buchanan on December 27 and 28. They believed that he had broken his word, and they told him so. Deeply agitated and refusing to admit that he had committed himself at the earlier conference, he said that Robert Anderson had acted on his own responsibility, but he refused to order him back to the now ruined Fort Moultrie. Buchanan, however, was virtually ready to give way to the demand of the commissioners. He drew up a paper to that effect and showed it to the Cabinet. Then the turning-point came. In a painful interview, Jeremiah S. Black, Secretary of State and long one of his most trusted friends, told him of his intention to resign, and that Attorney General Edwin M. Stanton would go with him and probably also the Postmaster-General, Joseph Holt. The idea of losing the support of these strong personalities terrified Buchanan, who immediately fell into a panic. Handing Black the paper he had drawn up, Buchanan begged him to retain office and to alter the paper as he saw fit. To this Black agreed. The demand for the surrender of the forts was refused; Anderson was not ordered back to Fort Moultrie; and for the brief remainder of Buchanan's administration Black acted as prime minister.
December 31, 1860 - Senate Committee of Thirteen reports that all proposals defeated in committee. The Crittenden Compromise was the only one that received serious attention.
January 3, 1861 - Georgia seizes Fort Pulaski. Fort Pulaski, a brick fortification on Cockspur Island, Georgia, at the mouth of the Savannah River, was built in 1829-47 by the U.S. government and named for Casimir Pulaski. The fort was seized by Georgia troops on January 3, 1861. It was recaptured by a Union force under Q. A. Gillmore on April 11, 1862, after a two-day bombardment in which the Federals used rifled cannon for the first time in the war.
January 3, 1861 - Florida Secession Convention convenes in Tallahassee.
January 3, 1861 - Senate Republicans oppose Crittenden's proposal that would allow the public to vote in a referendum on his compromise, though it had some support. Mid-Southern and border state congressmen meet and form a committee to look at compromises.
January 3, 1861 - Delaware votes not to secede from the Union.
January 4-5, 1861 - Alabama Seizes Federal Installations. A full week before Alabama secedes from the Union, Gov. A. B. Moore orders the seizure of federal military installations within the state. By the end of the next day Alabama troops controlled Fort Gaines, Fort Morgan, and the U.S. Arsenal at Mount Vernon
January 6-12, 1861 - Florida Seizes Federal Installations. Florida seizes the federal arsenal at Apalachicola on January 6. The next day Fort Marion at St. Augustine is handed over to the Confederates on the basis of a receipt for the Fort and all of its contents signed by Confederate authorities and given to the Union commander. At the time of the secession crisis, Fort Pickens had not been occupied since the Mexican War. Despite its dilapidated condition, Lieutenant Adam J. Slemmer, who was in charge of United States forces at Fort Barrancas, determined that Pickens was more defensible than any of the other posts in the area. His decision to abandon Barrancas was hastened when, around midnight of January 8, 1861, his guards repelled a group of men intending to take the fort. Some historians note that this could be considered the first shots fired by United States forces in the Civil War. Shortly after this incident, Slemmer destroyed over 20,000 pounds of powder at Fort McRee, spiked the guns at Barrancas, and evacuated about eighty troops to Fort Pickens. On January 12 Florida and Alabama troops occupied the mainland bases and demanded that Slemmer surrender Fort Pickens. He refused these demands and held his position until an informal agreement, or "truce," was established between the Buchanan administration and Florida. Southern troops would not attack Pickens as long as Union troops remained aboard nearby ships and did not reinforce the fort. Fort Pickens remained in Union hands throughout the Civil War.
January 7, 1861 - Farewell Address of Sen. Robert Toombs of Georgia to the United States Senate.
January 7, 1861 - Mississippi Secession Convention convenes in Jackson, Mississippi.
January 7, 1861 - Alabama Secession Convention convenes in Montgomery.
January 7, 1861 - Louisiana election to delegates to secession convention.
January 7, 1861 - Tennessee Calls Secession Convention. Tennessee Special Secession of the thirty-third legislature called by Governor Isham G. Harris meets in Nashville. Governor Harris delivers a long, passionate message outlining Northern aggressions against the South, from raising to martyrdom John Brown, to harboring one of his criminal fugitive sons. The legislature, among other things, agrees to allow a vote of the people "for or against" a secession convention, and at the same time to elect delegates to the convention.
January 7, 1861 - Personal Explanation of the Hon. W. R. W. Cobb, of Alabama, is delivered in the U.S. House of Representatives, pointing out, among other things, that the Republicans, elected by a minority of voters, have no mandate for anything.
January 7, 1861 - Letcher's Message on Federal Relations. Governor John Letcher of Virginia delivers his "Message on Federal Relations" to the Virginia legislature. Letcher points out the Northern hatred of South, advocates a convention of Northern and Southern delegates to try and work out problems, or to separate peaceably. He rails against John Brown, complaining that Brown should have been denounced by the North but was not. He cites the New England's secessionist attempt with the Hartford Convention, blames New England for all the nation's troubles, and includes a glowing economic vision of free trade and rapidly growing Southern ports.
January 7, 1861 - Sen. John J. Crittenden speaks passionately in the U. S. Senate for his Compromise.
January 8, 1861 - Buchanan's Message to Congress. President James Buchanan sends to Congress a message asking for pause, North and South, and saying the situation was beyond presidential control and the country needed to hear from the ballot box before a war started. He supports the Crittenden Compromise and the division of the territories by the old line of the Missouri Compromise.
January 9, 1861 - Mississippi Secedes from the Union. Mississippi becomes the second state to secede when the Mississippi Secession Convention passes a secession ordinance 84-15. The Declaration of Secession for Mississippi states, "Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth."
January 9, 1861 - Relief Ship to Ft. Sumter Fired Upon. An unarmed merchant ship, Star of the West, carrying Union recruits to reinforce Robert Anderson at Fort Sumter, was fired on. Anderson, cut off by land by South Carolina's secession two weeks earlier, had moved his 75 men out to the red brick fortress in Charleston harbor. Rebel Charles Haynesworth, a Citadel cadet, fired a handgun at the ship, shooting the first shot of the Civil War. In a later volley, a cannonball was put across the Star's bow, alerting the Southern militiamen at Sullivan Island's Fort Moultrie. They hit the unarmed vessel twice before it turned about and fled.
January 10, 1861 - Florida Secedes from the Union. Florida becomes the third state to secede. On January 3, 1861, convention delegates chosen in pursuance of the act of the general assembly, approved November 30, 1860, assembled in the house of representatives in Tallahassee. On January 10, the secession ordinance was adopted by a vote of 62-7. The text of the ordinance is as follows: "We, the people of the State of Florida, in convention assembled, do solemnly ordain, publish and declare: That the State of Florida hereby withdraws herself from the Confederacy of States existing under the name of the United States of America, and from the existing government of said States, and that all political connection between her and the government of said States ought to be, and the same is hereby totally annulled, and said union of States dissolved, and the State of Florida is hereby declared a sovereign and independent nation, and that all ordinances heretofore adopted, in so far as they create or recognize said Union, are rescinded, and all laws or parts of laws in force in this State, in so far as they recognize or assent to said Union be, and they are hereby repealed."
January 11, 1861 - Alabama Secedes from the Union. Alabama becomes the fourth state to secede, by a vote of 61-39.
January 11, 1861 - Resolution of New York Legislature. New York Legislature passes anti-Southern resolution entitled Concurrent resolutions tendering aid to the President of the United States in support of the Constitution and the Union which starts "Whereas, treason, as defined by the Constitution of the United States, exists in one of more of the States of this confederacy; and whereas, the insurgent State of South Carolina, . . .". It goes on to say that the N.Y. Legislature "is profoundly impressed with the value of the Union, and determined to preserve it unimpaired." A copy of this resolution was sent to all the governors.
January 14, 1861 - Corwin Amendment. With the U.S. House Committee of Thirty-three unable to reach agreement on a compromise, Ohio Rep. Thomas Corwin, Chairman of the House Committee of Thirty-three, proposed a constitutional amendment protecting slavery where it exists that could never be further amended without approval of slaveholding states. In a stunning feat of linguistic legerdemain, the Corwin committee delivered to the House floor a draft amendment to protect slavery that never mentioned the words "slave" or "slavery" at all: "No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State." Significantly, the proposed amendment did not address the burning issue of moment: the power of Congress to bar slavery from territories that were not yet states. The amendment passed the House as Joint Resolution No. 80 on February 28 by a vote of 133 to 65, which was two-thirds of the members present. In the subsequent parliamentary wrangle over whether that met the Constitution's requirement of two-thirds of the House, opponents of the amendment lost. On March 2, the Senate acted in favor of the proposed amendment by a vote of 24 to 12, with anti-slavery Senator Benjamin F. Wade of Ohio attempting to derail it—or at least to demonstrate his disgust for it—by asking unanimous consent to vote first on a bill relating to guano deposits. Another opponent of the amendment, Senator Lyman Trumbull of Illinois, lodged an appeal of the decision by Senate President Pro Tem Solomon Foot of Vermont that the vote—two-thirds of the members present—met the Consitutional two-thirds requirement; but Trumbull joined 32 other senators in upholding the action, leaving Wade the sole senator opposing it. A young Henry Adams observed that the measure narrowly passed both bodies due to the lobbying efforts of Abraham Lincoln, the President-Elect. Ratification efforts began quickly after the resolution's adoption by Congress and included a public endorsement in Lincoln's first inaugural address. The proposal was ratified by the legislatures of Ohio (May 13, 1861) and Maryland (January 10, 1862). Illinois lawmakers—sitting as a state constitutional convention at the time—also approved it, but that action is of questionable validity. The amendment was considered for ratification in several additional states including Connecticut, Kentucky, and New York but was either rejected or died in committee under neglect as other pressing wartime issues came to preoccupy the nation's attention. The Corwin Amendment was never ratified.
January 16, 1861 - The Senate refuses to consider the Crittenden Compromise, one of several failed attempts to ease tension between the North and South.
January 17, 1861 - Kentucky legislature meets and its House tables a convention bill, 54-36. The Senate bill also died in committee. Resolutions encouraging Southern states to stop seceding, as well as denouncing coercion by the Federal Government were passed. The legislature then adjourned until March 20.
January 18, 1861 - Massachusetts legislature offers money and men to maintain the Union.
January 19, 1861 - Georgia Secedes from the Union. Georgia becomes the fifth state to secede on a vote of 208-89 at a convention held in Milledgeville, Georgia. Georgia's Declaration of Secession is approved stating, "For the last ten years we have had numerous and serious causes of complaint against our non-slave-holding confederate States with reference to the subject of African slavery. They have endeavored to weaken our security, to disturb our domestic peace and tranquility, and persistently refused to comply with their express constitutional obligations to us in reference to that property, and by the use of their power in the Federal Government have striven to deprive us of an equal enjoyment of the common Territories of the Republic."
January 21, 1861 - Withdrawal of Southern Congressmen. Members from the seceding states had designated January 21, as the day of their mass resignations. One by one, Southern members of the House and Senate stood in the well of each, making their resignation speeches. In the Senate, Benjamin Fitzpatrick, former Governor of Alabama, and President pro tem of the United States Senate, 1857-60, offered his good-byes, followed by Senator Clement C. Clay, Jr. of Alabama, son of Clement Comer Clay, who had chaired the Committee of Fifteen which drafted the Constitution of 1819, as a pre-requisite to Alabama statehood. The Senators from Florida, David Yulee and Stephen Mallory withdraw, as well as Jefferson Davis of Mississippi. In his Farewell Address Davis noted that "nullification and secession, so often confounded, are indeed antagonistic principles. Nullification is a remedy which it is sought to apply within the Union, and against the agent of the States. It is only to be justified when the agent has violated his constitutional obligation, and a State, assuming to judge for itself, denies the right of the agent thus to act, and appeals to the other States of the Union for a decision; but when the States themselves, and when the people of the States, have so acted as to convince us that they will not regard our constitutional rights, then, and then for the first time, arises the doctrine of secession in its practical application." In the House, Representatives from Alabama withdraw: James A. Stallworth, James L. Pugh, David Clopton, Sydenham Moore, George S. Houston and Jabez L. M. Curry. Only Williamson R. W. Cobb, that old Jacksonian populist of Bellefonte, did not join. Cobb was his own man, and would be no mere follower in the massive walkout. Instead, he waited nine days and on January 30, this sole representative from Alabama submitted his own resignation.
January 21-23, 1861 - Northern Legislatures Pledge Support for Union. New York legislature pledges support to the Union on January 21, followed by the legislatures of Wisconsin (January 22), Massachusetts (January 23), and Pennsylvania (January 24).
January 26, 1861 - Louisiana Secedes from the Union. The Secession Convention in Louisiana, in session since January 23, 1861, approves an ordinance of secession (by a vote of 113-17), becoming the sixth state to secede. Governor Thomas Overton Moore appoints Brig. Gen. Braxton Bragg to head the state army and supports the formation of the Confederacy.
January 29, 1861 - Kansas Admittted to the Union. After years of confrontations, often violent, between pro- and anti-slavery squatters attempting to have their say in whether slavery would be legal in the state, "bleeding" Kansas is admitted to the Union as the 34th State, with an antislavery constitution.
February 1, 1861 - Texas Secedes from the Union. Texas becomes the seventh state to secede. Its convention votes for secession from the Union by a vote of 166-8, pending ratification by the people. (In a general election, held on February 23, 1861, voters ratified secession by a better than three to one margin). In the Texas Declaration of Secession it states, "In all the non-slaveholding States, in violation of that good faith and comity which should exist between entirely distinct nations, the people have formed themselves into a great sectional party, now strong enough in numbers to control the affairs of each of those States, based upon an unnatural feeling of hostility to these Southern States and their beneficent and patriarchal system of African slavery, proclaiming the debasing doctrine of equality of all men, irrespective of race or color—a doctrine at war with nature, in opposition to the experience of mankind, and in violation of the plainest revelations of Divine Law. They demand the abolition of negro slavery throughout the confederacy, the recognition of political equality between the white and negro races, and avow their determination to press on their crusade against us, so long as a negro slave remains in these States".
February 4-27, 1861 - Washington Peace Conference. The Washington Peace Conference met at Willard's Dancing Hall, adjoining Willard's Hotel in Washington, from February 4-27, 1861. The conference was convened at the request of the Virginia legislature on January 18, but only some of the states sent representatives. Ultimately 131 members participated from the 21 states still in the Union. Present on the first day were delegates from New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and Iowa, 14 states. During the conference delegates arrived from Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois and Kansas. The convention had invited delegates from all states, including those that had already seceded, but the seven seceding states of the deep South boycotted. In addition Arkansas, California, Oregon, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota did not send representatives. The meeting was primarily a forum for the upper South to express their moderate aims. The Convention sent representatives to meet with President Buchanan. Former president John Tyler of Virginia was the presiding officer. Among the delegates were men of distinction and leadership, including David Wilmot of Pennsylvania, David Dudley Field of New York, Reverdy Johnson of Maryland, William C. Rives of Virginia, and Salmon P. Chase of Ohio. The conference consciously modeled itself after the Constitutional Convention of 1787, but many of its delegates were, in striking contrast, elderly and past their political prime. Tyler himself was seventy-one. The meeting was characterized as an "old gentlemen's convention," its delegates as "venerable," and less politely as "fossils." Their proposals were framed as a single amendment to the Constitution of seven sections. In its essence it is very similar to the Crittenden Compromise, although slightly different in wording and some of the details, borrowing a bit from some of the proposals made to the Committee of Thirteen. The amendment was brought up in the Senate on February 27, 1861, by Senator Lazarus W. Powell of Kentucky, but it was unsatisfactory to the Republicans, who objected to it on the ostensible ground of the incompetency of the conference to prepare amendments for congressional action, and to the southern senators, who preferred secession to any amendment without a formal acceptance by Republican votes. The amendment was satisfactory only to the Union-loving Democrats of the Middle and Border States. On the last day of the session an effort made to substitute the conference amendment for senator Douglas' amendment, as contained in the house resolutions, was voted down by a vote of 34 to 3. In the House various attempts were made from February 27 until March 3 to introduce the conference amendment, but all were unsuccessful.
February 4-March 16, 1861 - First Session of the Provisional Confederate Congress. The Convention of representatives from South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, Florida and Alabama meet in Montgomery, Alabama, and become first session of provisional Confederate Congress. Unlike the later bicameral Confederate Congress, the Provisional Congress consisted of only one house. The First Session of the Provisional Congress lasted from February 4 to March 16, 1861. On February 8, the Convention adopts a Provisional Constitution. The following day the deputies elect unanimously a Confederate Provisional President: Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, former United States Secretary of War and Senator, a West Point graduate and former U.S. Army officer, considered by most a moderate. He was not in attendance at the convention. Georgia's Alexander "Little Alec" Stephens, is also elected unanimously, as Vice-President. Among the deputies of the First Session were Jabez L. M. Curry, David Peter Lewis, John Gill Shorter, and Robert Hardy Smith of Alabama; James Patton Anderson of Florida; Francis Stebbins Bartow, Howell Cobb, Sr., Thomas R.R. Cobb, Alexander Hamilton Stephens and Robert Augustus Toombs of George; Charles Magill Conrad of Louisiana; Robert Woodward Barnwell, Christopher Gustavus Memminger, William Porcher Miles, James Lawrence Orr of South Carolina; and John Gregg, John Hemphill, William Beck Ochiltree, Sr., John Henninger Reagan, and Louis Trezevant Wigfall of Texas. Following the Battle of Fort Sumter in April 1861, the remaining states to secede sent delegates to the Confederate Congress, which met in three additional sessions between July 1861 and February 1862 in the Confederate Capitol of Richmond, Virginia.
February 9, 1861 - Tennesseans vote against calling a secession convention, 69,675 to 57,798.
February 11, 1861 - Abraham Lincoln gave his Farewell Address to Springfield, just a day before his 52nd birthday. The journey to Washington D.C. took 12 days. Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln leave their homes on the same day, Davis headed to Montgomery, and Lincoln to Washington, both taking circuitous routes. In Montgomery, Alexander Stephens is inaugurated as Vice-President.
February 11, 1861 - The House of Representatives unanimously passes a resolution guaranteeing non-interference with slavery in any state.
February 13, 1861 - Col. Bernard Irwin, Asst. Army Srugeon, attacks and defeats hostile Chiricahua Indians in the Apache war in Arizona, the first action for which a Medal of Honor is awarded.
February 13, 1861 - Virginia Secession Convention Convenes. The Virginia secession convention assembled in Richmond. Called for by a special session of the General Assembly, the group convened to determine whether Virginia should secede from the Union. Although the 152 delegates gathered in the capitol that first day, most of their meetings took place in the Virginia Mechanic's Institute, at the corner of Ninth and Franklin streets.
February 15, 1861 - The Montgomery convention, acting as the provisional Confederate Congress, resolves to take Fort Sumter by force if necessary.
February 18, 1861 - Inaugaration of Jefferson Davis. In Montgomery, Alabama Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the first and only President of the Confederate States of America, stating clearly that he hoped for peace. Davis pointed out that the Confederacy was living proof that "governments rest upon the consent of the governed, and that it is the right of the people to alter or abolish governments whenever they become destructive of the ends for which they were established." Davis also reiterated Southern economic strength and plans for free trade.
February 18, 1861 - Federal Troops Surrendered in Texas. Brig. Gen. David Twiggs, a Southern sympathizer, surrenders the military forces and stores under his command in Texas to Colonel Ben McCulloch, representing the State of Texas. Twiggs was labeled a traitor in the North and he was dishonorably dismissed from the U.S. army for "treachery to the flag" on March 1, 1861.
February 18, 1861 - Arkansians vote 27,412 to 15,826 in favor of calling a secession convention.
February 21, 1861 - Confederacy Establish Postal Service. After being cut off from the U. S. Postal Service the Confederate States of America organized their own post office with John H. Reagan as Postmaster General.
February 28, 1861 - Territory of Colorado Organized. The Colorado Gold Rush of 1859 had brought large numbers of settlers to the Denver area, although the population collapsed following an initial mining boom. The Colorado Territory was organized as a United States territory on February 28, 1861 and Colorado attained statehood in 1876 (earning it the monicker the "Centennial State").
February 23, 1861 - Texas Ratifies Secession. Texas voters ratify secession, 34,794 to 11,235.
February 23, 1861 - Lincoln Arrives in Washington, D.C. Abraham Lincoln arrived by train in Washington, D.C., at 6 a.m., accompanied by a friend, Ward H. Lamon, and detective Allan Pinkerton. The last leg of his hitherto public journey eastward—filled with parades, rallies, and speeches—was undertaken in great secrecy. Lincoln's advisers, high military and civilian authorities, and railroad officials were all much concerned about his physical safety. There were rumors of an extensive plot to assassinate him when he passed through Baltimore. Lincoln reluctantly agreed to go from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to Washington, via Philadelphia and Baltimore, in secrecy and with considerable security undertaken by the railroad. Accompanied by Lamon and Pinkerton, Lincoln left Harrisburg after dinner on February 22, on a special train to Philadelphia. There they connected with the Baltimore train late that evening, arriving in Baltimore about 4 a.m., where they were switched to the Baltimore & Ohio tracks for the trip to Washington. At Washington, Lincoln was met by Illinois Representative Elihu Washburne, who escorted him to Willard's Hotel. The manner of Lincoln's arrival was ridiculed by his enemies and criticized by many friends. According to Lamon, Lincoln soon regretted the midnight journey to Washington as unworthy of the leader of a great republic. But Lincoln's advisers, like Lamon, believed the plot to assassinate him was genuine and that his life was endangered from the moment he crossed the Maryland line.
February 23, 1861 - The Peace Conference reports to Congress six proposed constitutional amendments but none are accepted. The U.S. House of Representatives votes down one proposal after another. The Crittenden Compromise finally dies.
February 27, 1861 - Davis Appoints Peace Commissioners. Confederate President Jefferson Davis appoints three commissioners (Martin Crawford, John Forsyth, and A.B. Roman) to negotiate with the Federal government. All requests for an unofficial interview with Sec. William H. Seward are declined.
March 2, 1861 - Morrill Tarriff Act of 1861. The Morrill Tariff of 1861 was a major protectionist tariff bill instituted in the United States. The act is informally named after its sponsor, Rep. Justin Morrill of Vermont, who designed the bill around recommendations by economist Henry C. Carey. The tax is significant for severely altering American commercial policy after a period of relative free trade to several decades of heavy protection. It replaced the Tariff of 1857. The Morrill Tariff is also remembered as a contentious issue that fueled sectional disputes on the eve of the American Civil War. The immediate effect of the Morrill Tariff was to more than double the tax collected on most dutiable items entering the United States. In 1860 American tariff rates were among the lowest in the world and also at historical lows by 19th century standards, the average rate being around 18% ad valorem. The Morrill Tariff immediately raised this average to 37%, and in subsequent years was revised upward until in 1864 (when it could only be collected from states under Union control) the average rate stood at 47%. The act passed the United States House of Representatives by a strictly sectional vote during the first session of the 36th Congress on May 10, 1860. Virtually all of the northern representatives supported it and southern representatives opposed it. The bill was headed toward adoption in the United States Senate when Senator Robert M. T. Hunter of Virginia, a free trade advocate, employed parliamentary tactics to delay the vote until the second session after recess. This second session did not meet until after the 1860 election, so the move guaranteed that the tax issue would come up during the campaigns that fall. During the campaign the Republican Party endorsed higher tariffs in their 1860 platform and campaigned on a protectionist ticket—especially in states like Pennsylvania (home of powerful Congressman and iron producer Thaddeus Stevens) and New Jersey where several industrial interests backed the rate hike. A large majority of Southerners opposed the tax increase because it hurt them financially and campaigned against it (though protective tariffs could benefit Louisiana's sugar plantation owners from Caribbean imports). Unlike the north where manufacturers benefited from protection, the south had few manufacturing industries. Most of the southern economy depended on the export of crops like cotton and tobacco, which were hurt on the world scene by policies that adversely impacted international trade. Returning in December, after the election, the Senate again took up the Morrill bill and intensely debated it for the next several months. On February 14, 1861 the new President-elect Abraham Lincoln publicly announced that he would make a new tariff his priority if the bill did not pass by inauguration day on March 4: "According to my political education, I am inclined to believe that the people in the various sections of the country should have their own views carried out through their representatives in Congress, and if the consideration of the Tariff bill should be postponed until the next session of the National Legislature, no subject should engage your representatives more closely than that of a tariff." On February 28 the Senate finally voted on and adopted the Morrill Tariff. The vote was again on sectional lines and came at the height of the secession crisis, but many southern senators had already resigned their seats to side with their states (somewhat ironically, thus ensuring easy passage). It was one of the last bills signed by outgoing Democratic president, James Buchanan of Pennsylvania. The bill was proposed after the Panic of 1857, which northerners such as Henry Carey blamed on the country's free trade policy—a problem he claimed the bill would rectify with protectionism (economists now recognize that the Panic of 1857 was caused by other unrelated factors). The main purpose of the Morrill Tariff's high rates was the protection of industrial manufacturing, located mostly in the northeast, from foreign competitor products. Due to the penalties it imposed on foreign traded goods the act formented hostility and condemnation of the United States from abroad. Anger over the new American tariff caused many British commentators and politicians to express sympathy for the new Confederate States of America over the north. The high rates probably also contributed to the rapid decline in British exports to the United States in the early summer of 1861.
March 2, 1861 - Congress Adopts Constitutional Amendment Protecting Slavery. Congress passes a joint resolution amending the Constitution that would protect slavery where it existed, and that protection would be beyond amendment by Congress. The text of the resolution read: :"No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State." This measure was approved by some states, but the war cut short the effort. The Senate rejects another attempt by John J. Crittenden, this one to adopt, as a constitutional amendment, the result of the Peace Convention. This was Crittenden's last attempt at compromise.
March 2, 1861 - Dakota and Nevada Territories Created. Congress creates Dakota and Nevada Territories out of the Nebraska and Utah territories. By early 1861 hundreds of settlers had migrated to the region of the Dakota, establishing communities in what is now South Dakota at Vermillion, Yankton, and Bon Homme, and occupying farms in the surrounding lands. On March 2, 1861, President James Buchanan signed the act establishing Dakota Territory, which included all of present-day North and South Dakota, as well as large portions of Wyoming and Montana. The first legislature of the Dakota Territory met in what is now Yankton, South Dakota, in 1862. In 1868 the creation of the Wyoming Territory established the western boundary of the Dakotas. The southern boundary was fixed in 1882. The Nevada Territory was an organized territory of the United States from March 2, 1861 until October 31, 1864, when it became Nevada, the 36th state. Prior to its designation as a territory, the area was part of western Utah Territory and was known as Washoe, after the native Washoe people. Despite the silver wealth of Nevada, and the ever-increasing population of miners that came to exploit it, Nevada was not quite populous enough to warrant statehood, but the Union's need for silver and the generally anti-slavery bent of its people trumped the population problem and led to statehood. The territorial capital was Carson City; James Warren Nye was the first and only territorial governor. The secretary of the territory was Orion Clemens, older brother of Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain).
March 4, 1861 - Inauguration of Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln is sworn in as 16th President of the United States of America. Special Senate Session of 37th Congress convenes. At his inaugural address, Abraham Lincoln attempted to avoid conflict by announcing that he had no intention "to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so." He added: "The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without yourselves being the aggressors."
March 4-24 1861 - Missouri Declares Neutrality. On March 4 the Missouri State Convention begins its meetings in St. Louis, under the presidency of Sterling "Pap" Price, to consider the secession of the State of Missouri from the Union. On March 5 a military bill, giving the Governor sweeping military empowerment is proposed, but it is rejected by the Missouri legislature at Jefferson City. On March 9 the Committee on Federal Relations at the Convention in St. Louis issued its report that in a "military aspect secession and connection with a Southern Confederacy is annihilation for Missouri." It also resolved that 1) "No adequate cause for the withdrawal of Missouri from the Union." 2) Belief that all the "seceded States would return to the Union if the Crittenden proposition were adopted". 3) It would "entreat the Federal Government not employ force against the seceding States . . ." On March 11 Gen. Frank P. Blair requests that Capt. Nathaniel Lyon take command of the troops at the St. Louis Arsenal. On March 21 the Missouri State Convention adjourns after voting against Secession, stating "no adequate cause [existed] to impel Missouri to dissolve her connections with the Federal Union." The final vote was 98-1. Missouri attempts neutrality but the Federal invasion in May pushed many Unionists into the Confederate camp. As in Kentucky, pro-Union and pro-Confederate governments were established, the latter run in exile by Governor Claiborne F. Jackson. Missouri became a Confederate state in November 1861. Its thriving prewar economy was devastated and its people terrorized by brutal guerrilla warfare.
March 1861 - Flags of the Confederacy. The first official flag of the Confederacy was "The Stars and Bars," which was flown from March 5, 1861 to May 1863. It caused confusion on the battlefield because it was so similar to the Stars and Stripes of the Union forces. The second national flag of the Confederacy was "The Stainless Banner," which was put into service on May 1, 1863. To avoid battlefield confusion between the Stars and Bars with the Union's Stars and Stripes, this new flag was designed with the battle flag placed in the first quarter. This flag, however, had its own problem: when the battlefield was windless, it was sometimes mistaken for a flag of surrender because all that could be seen was the field of white. The "Battle Flag" of the Confederacy is square, of various sizes for the different branches of the service: 48 inches square for the infantry, 36 inches for the artillery, and 30 inches for the cavalry. It was used in battle from November 1861 to the fall of the Confederacy. The blue color on the Southern Cross in the battle flag was navy blue, as opposed to the much lighter blue of the Naval Jack. The Stars and Bars were too easily confused in the smoke of battle with the Stars and Stripes, resulting in very real military mistakes. To remedy this, General Pierre G.T. Beauregard of the Army of Virginia and others sought a better design and Beauregard was the first to adopt the flag from the design of William Porcher Miles. Miles' rectangular design was sized down to a square to aid folding and carrying in battle. The flag is also known by historians as the flag of the Army of Northern Virginia. This flag proved so popular, that it became basis for the Second National flag of the Confederacy (see above). Some prefer the square proportions of this flag over Mile's original rectangle as more sonorous and more distinct.
March 6, 1861 - The Confederate Congress authorizes an army of volunteers.
March 9-April 3, 1861 - Lincoln Decides to Re-inforce Ft. Sumter. Abraham Lincoln and his cabinet meet many times to discuss the situation at Fort Sumter. The final decision to re-inforce the fort is taken on April 4.
March 11, 1861 - The Constitution of the Confederate States of America is adopted. It was almost identical to the United States constitution, with a few differences: 1) In the preamble, it omitted the general welfare clause, and added that each ratifying state was acting "in its sovereign and independent character." 2) It explicitly guaranteed slavery in both states and territories, but banned the international slave trade. 3) It prohibited protective tariffs and Congressional appropriations for internal improvements. 4) The Confederate constitution limited the president to one six-year term, but gave him a line item veto. The delegates chose a provisional cabinet, and sent comissioners to the secession conventions in the Upper South. They hoped to present a moderate image, in order to convince the remaining slaveholding states to join them.
March 18, 1861 - Arkansas Convention Votes Against Secession. The Arkansas secession convention votes 39 to 35 against secession, but then votes unanimously to put the secession question before the people of the state in an August referendum.
April 4, 1861 - Lincoln Orders Relief Ship to Ft. Sumter. Abraham Lincoln orders a relief shipment of food to Fort Sumter; the expedition sails from New York on April 8.
April 9, 1861 - The Confederate Cabinet concurs with President Jefferson Davis's order to General Pierre G.T. Beauregard that Fort Sumter should be reduced before the relief fleet arrives.
April 10, 1861 - Confederate Secretary of War Leroy Pope Walker orders Pierre G.T. Beauregard to demand the evacuation of Fort Sumter, under threat of bombardment. The Sumter relief fleet begins to leave New York harbor.
April 11, 1861 - Gen. Pierre G.T. Beauregard demands the evacuation of Fort Sumter (2:20 p.m.). Major Robert Anderson refuses, but adds, "if you do not batter us to pieces we will be starved out in a few days." Beauregard communicates this comment to the Confederate government and asks for instructions (5:10, approx.). Beauregard is instructed: "If Major Anderson will state the time at which, as indicated by him, he will evacuate, and agree that in the mean time he will not use his guns against us unless ours should be employed against Fort Sumter," then Fort Sumter should not be bombarded (9:10 p.m.).
April 12, 1861 - Attack on Fort Sumter. At 12:45 a.m. General Pierre G.T. Beauregard asks Major Robert Anderson if he can comply with the demands of the Confederate government. Anderson offers to evacuate on April 15 at noon, but declines to promise not to use his guns in support of any operations under the United States flag. This is considered unsatisfactory (3:00 a.m.). At 3:20 a.m. elements of the relief fleet begin to gather outside Charleston Harbor. Anderson is informed that the Confederates will open fire in one hour. At 4:30 a.m. Confederates under General Beauregard open fire with 50 cannons upon Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. Edmund Ruffin, a fiery Virginia secessionist, is often credited with firing the first shot. Despite this legend, the signal shot probably came from Capt. George James's post at Fort Johnson. Ruffin fired from the battery on Cummings Point, and the sequence of firing orders called for this battery to fire after James's. Major Robert Anderson's 84 men in Fort Sumter rotated in firing the fort's 48 guns, assisted by 43 workmen. Their heaviest-caliber weapon—the barbette—had to be abandoned after Confederates tore down a house on Sullivan's Island to reveal a secret battery that enfiladed the barbettes. Sumter's garrison ignored the initial hail of cannonballs and shells until after breakfast, a repast that took several hours and produced a silence that thoroughly baffled the Rebels. Capt. Abner Doubleday then fired the Union's first defensive shot, aiming at Cummings Point. Brought under attack from 4 directions—Fort Moultrie, Fort Johnson, Cummings Point, and a floating battery—Major Anderson surrendered after 34 hours of bombardment in which over 4,000 projectiles were fired. No one was killed, and only a few were injured, by falling bricks. In the pomp-and-circumstance surrender ceremony, a 50-gun salute was delivered. On the 50th reloading, a spark accidentally touched off a premature explosion, killing Federal Private Daniel Hough and mortally wounding Private Edward Galloway, the first deaths of the war. The hot embers fell on the cartridges stacked below, exploding these as well, injuring 4 other men (Privates George Fielding, John Irwin, George Pinchard, and James Hayes). These were the only casualties of the crisis. Sumter would have fallen anyway, having nothing to eat except salt pork. But Southern politicians, fearful that the new Confederacy would splinter "unless you sprinkle blood in the face of the people," ordered that first shot to be fired.
April 15, 1861 - Proclamation Calling Militia and Convening Congress. In Washington, President Abraham Lincoln issues a proclamation announcing an "insurrection," and calls for 75,000 troops to be raised from the militia of the several States of the Union to serve for three months. Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas and Tennessee refuse to send troops and soon join the Confederacy. Kentucky and Missouri were also unwilling to supply men for the Union Army but decide not to take sides in the conflict. Lincoln summons Congress to meet on July 4.
April 17, 1861 - Virginia adopts an Ordinance of Secession The Virginia Secession Convention first convened in Richmond, Virginia, on February 13, 1861. The debates continued until April 15, when Richmond newspapers reported Lincoln's call for 75,000 troops to suppress the uprising. As a member of the Union, Virginia would be required to send 8,000 soldiers. This proved to be the breaking point for delegates, and the convention chose to stand with other southerners and vote for secession. On April 16, the delegates met in secrecy and passed the Ordinance of Secession the next day. The citizens of Virginia ratified the ordinance on May 23. Virginia is the eighth state to secede, followed within five weeks by Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina, thus forming an eleven state Confederacy with a population of 9 million, including nearly 4 million slaves. The Union will soon have 21 states and a population of over 20 million.
April 19, 1861 - Proclamation of Blockade President Abraham Lincoln issues a blockage proclamation against Southern ports. This strategy was based on the Anaconda Plan developed by General Winfield Scott, the commanding general of the Union Army. Scott did not believe that a quick victory was possible for Federal forces. He devised a long-term plan to defeat the Confederacy by occupying key terrain, such as the Mississippi River and key ports on the Atlantic Coast and the Gulf of Mexico, then moving on Atlanta. This Anaconda Plan was derided in the press; however, it was the strategy the Union actually used in its broad outlines, particularly in the Western Theater and in the successful naval blockade of Confederate ports. Scott believed if the plan was executed early the South would negotiate a peace deal. However, at the start of the war, the U.S. Navy had only a small number of ships and was in no position to guard all 3,000 miles of Southern coast. For the duration of the war the blockade limits the ability of the rural South to stay well supplied in its war against the industrialized North.
April 19, 1861 - Riot in Baltimore. A clash between pro-South civilians and Union troops in Maryland's largest city resulted in what is commonly accepted to be the first bloodshed of the Civil War. Secessionist sympathy was strong in Baltimore, a border state metropolis. Before his inauguration, rumors in the city of an assassination plot against Abraham Lincoln, who was on his way to Washington, D.C., forced the president-elect to sneak through Baltimore in the middle of the night. Anti-Union sentiments there only increased once the hostilities commenced at Fort Sumter on April 12. A week later, one of the first regiments to respond to Lincoln's call for troops arrived in Baltimore by train, en route to the capital. Because the rail line did not pass through the city, horse drawn cars had to take the Massachusetts infantrymen from one end of Baltimore to the other. An angry crowd of secessionists tried to keep the regiment from reaching Washington, blocking several of the transports, breaking windows, and, finally, forcing the soldiers to get out and march through the streets. The throng followed in close pursuit. What had now become a mob surrounded and jeered the regiment, then started throwing bricks and stones. Panicking, several soldiers fired randomly into the crowd, and mayhem ensued as the regiment scrambled to the railroad station. The police managed to hold the crowd back at the terminal, allowing the infantrymen to board their train and escape, leaving behind much of their equipment as well as their marching band. Four soldiers and twelve civilians were killed, and scores were injured. Maryland officials demanded that no more Federal troops be sent through the state, while Baltimore's mayor and police chief authorized the destruction of key rail bridges to prevent Union troops from entering the city. Secessionist groups, meanwhile, tore down telegraph wires to Washington, temporarily cutting the capital off from the rest of the nation. The North was outraged; New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley even called for Baltimore to be burned to the ground. On May 13, Federal troops, including members of the Massachusetts regiment attacked in the previous month's riot, occupied the city and martial law was declared, squelching most subsequent pro-Confederate activities. The police chief, several commissioners, and a number of citizens were arrested for their alleged participation in the riot, and suspected secessionists, including Francis Scott Key's grandson and a number of state legislators, were held without charges. Federal forces continued to maintain an occupying presence in Baltimore for the remainder of the war.
April 20, 1861 - Resignation of Lee. Robert E. Lee, son of a Revolutionary War hero, and a 25 year distinguished veteran of the United States Army and former Superintendent of West Point, resigns his commission in the United States Army. "I cannot raise my hand against my birthplace, my home, my children." Lee had been offered command of the Union Army on April 18. He travels to Richmond, Virginia, and is offered and accepts command of the military and naval forces of Virginia.
April 20, 1861 - Union Forces Abandon Norfolk, Secure Ft. Monroe. On April 20 the Union Navy burned and evacuated the Norfolk Navy Yard, destroying nine ships in the process, leaving only Fort Monroe at Old Point Comfort as the last bastion of the United States in Tidewater Virginia. Decisive action by Gen. John Wool secured Fort Monroe, Virginia for the Union. The fort guarded the entrance to Chesapeake Bay and the James River, overlooking Hampton Roads and the Gosport Navy Yard, which the Confederates had seized. It was to serve as the principal supply depot of General George B. McClellan's Peninsula Campaign in May 1862. Occupation of Norfolk gave the Confederacy its only major shipyard and thousands of heavy guns, but they held it for only one year. Brig. Gen. Walter Gwynn, who commanded the Confederate defenses around Norfolk, erected batteries at Sewell's Point, both to protect Norfolk and to control Hampton Roads.
April 27, 1861 - Habeas Corpus Suspended. Abraham Lincoln authorizes the suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus in a limited area between Washington and New York in an order issued to Winfield Scott, Commander of the Army: "You are engaged in repressing an insurrection against the laws of the United States. If at any point on or in the vicinity of the military line which is now used between the city of Philadelphia via Perryville, Annapolis City and Annapolis Junction you find resistance which renders it necessary to suspend the writ of habeas corpus for the public safety, you personally or through the officer in command at the point where resistance occurs are authorized to suspend that writ." A challenge was mounted to Lincoln's action in ex parte Merryman (1861). On May 25, 1861, John Merryman, a Maryland resident and avowed secessionist, was arrested and detained in Fort McHenry. In April 1861, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, then sitting on the Circuit Court bench, found that Merryman was being held unlawfully and issued a writ of habeas corpus. General George Cadwalader, in command of Fort McHenry, refused to obey the writ, however, on the basis that President Abraham Lincoln had suspended habeas corpus and citing the fact that he was acting in compliance with an Executive Order. Taney cited Cadwalader for contempt of court and then wrote an opinion about Article I, Section 9, of the Constitution, which allows suspension of habeas corpus "when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it." Taney argued that only Congress—not the president—had the power of suspension. Indeed the Constitution (Article 1, Section 9) is silent on who can make the decision to suspend. Lincoln simply ignored Taney's order. President Lincoln justified his action in a message to Congress in July 1861.The limited suspension of habeas corpus was rescinded on February 14, 1862. Merryman was later released. The constitutional question of who has the right to suspend habeas corpus, Congress or the president, has never been officially resolved.
May 3, 1861 - Lincoln Appeals for Volunteers. Abraham Lincoln appeals for 42,000 men to serve for three years or for the duration of the war. There is a general expectation of a short conflict.
May 6, 1861 - Arkansas Secedes from the Union. When the secession crisis swept the State in early 1861 the Arkansas Secession Convention voted to remain in the Union. When Fort Sumter was fired on and Lincoln called for troops from Arkansas the Secession Convention was recalled. The convention voted to take Arkansas out of the Union with only Isaac Murphy and four other delegates opposed. The convention chair called on the five opposition votes to change their votes so that Arkansas could speak with a unanimous voice. All four of the other nay voters changed their votes but Murphy refused.
May 6-7, 1861 - Tennessee Forms Alliance with Confederacy. On May 6, the Tennessee legislature calls for popular vote on secession. The following day Tennessee forms an alliance with the Confederacy, effectively seceding from the Union. The Ordinance of Secession is approved by the voters on June 8, 1861.
May 10-12, 1861 - The St. Louis Massacre began on May 10, 1861 when union military forces clashed with civilians on the streets of St. Louis, Missouri resulting in the deaths of at least 28 and injuries of roughly 100. The events began when Union Captain Nathaniel Lyon, a Radical Republican known for his brazenness, used a newly mustered force of roughly 3,000 men, many of them German immigrants and members of the Wide Awakes organization, to arrest a Missouri State Militia encampment located outside of the city. It was widely rumored that the militia intended to take possession of the hotly contested St. Louis Arsenal, which both union and Confederate forces desired. After surrounding the militia encampment Lyon decided to march his prisoners through downtown St. Louis before providing them with a parole and ordering them to disperse. This march was widely viewed as humiliation for the state forces and immediately angered citizens who had gathered to watch the commotion. Tensions mounted quickly on the streets as civilians hurled fruit, rocks, and insults at Lyon's troops and some of the soldiers returned the favor. Nobody knows exactly what happened to provoke the massacre, but the standard report says that a drunkard stumbled into the path of the marching soldiers and got into an altercation with some of them. Weapons were drawn by both the soldiers and civilians and shots rang out. Some of the soldiers formed a line and fired into the nearby crowd. Violence continued for the next two days resulting in the death of at least 7 more civilians, who were shot by federal troops patrolling the streets. The St. Louis Massacre, as it came to be called, quickly sparked an outcry across the state of Missouri. Prior to that point most Missourians had been moderate unionists who were opposed to secession and war. Popular opinion transformed overnight, causing many former unionists including former Governor Sterling Price to advocate secession and producing a state that was bitterly divided between Union and Confederate sympathizers.
May 13-15, 1861 - The First Wheeling Convention. Twenty-seven western Virginia counties were represented. Immediately a debate ensued over which delegates should be allowed to participate in the Convention: General John Jay Jackson of Wood County suggested seating all northwestern Virginians, but John Carlile insisted that only those who had been legitimately appointed by their constituencies be allowed to participate. Chester D. Hubbard of Ohio County ended the debate by proposing the creation of a committee on representation and permanent organization. Some, including John Jay Jackson, argued that preemptive action against the Ordinance of Secession before it was ratified was unwise: the Ordinance had not yet been presented to the citizens of Virginia for a vote, and would not be until May 23. Others, including John Carlile, insisted on immediate action to "show our loyalty to Virginia and the Union", and on May 14, he called for a resolution creating a state of New Virginia. The motion was condemned as revolutionary, and most at the Convention instead supported resolutions offered by the Committee on State and Federal Resolutions, which recommended that western Virginians elect delegates to a Second Wheeling Convention to begin on June 11 if the people of Virginia approved the Ordinance of Secession.
May 13, 1861 - Britain Declares Neutrality. Queen Victoria announces Great Britain's neutrality and grants the Confederacy "belligerent status."
May 20, 1861 - North Carolina Secedes from the Union. In North Carolina two factions arose: unionists and secessionists. Unionist sentiment was very strong, as the support for John Bell indicated. Even many slave owners felt that Lincoln's election alone was not sufficient cause for secession. The secessionist movement included the governor of the state, John W. Ellis. Unionists counted among their numbers prominent figures such as Congressman Zebulon Vance. In February 1861 the state's citizens defeated a referendum on whether to call a convention to discuss the issue. The debate continued until April 15, 1861, when, following the April 12 firing on Fort Sumter, Gov. John W. Ellis received a telegram from Simon Cameron, Lincoln's secretary of war. The telegram, which was sent to all states still in the Union, asked for two regiments of troops for immediate military service. The south viewed this as an act of war, and most southerners, even those who opposed secession, felt they were now forced to choose sides. Jonathan Worth, state senator, writes on May 13: "I have been the most persevering and determined public man in my State to preserve the Union, the last to abandon the hope that the good sense of the Nation would prevent a collision between the extremes, each of which I viewed with equal abhorrence. I am left no other alternative but to fight for or against my section. I can not hesitate. Lincoln has made us a unit to resist until we repel our invaders or die. He writes again on May 15: "I think the South is committing suicide, but my lot is cast with the South and being unable to manage the ship, I intend to face the breakers manfully and go down with my companions."
May 20, 1861 - Kentucky Declare Neutrality. Gov. Beriah Magoffin of Kentucky refused the call for troops and formally declared the state's neutrality. But the attempt proved futile: both Union and Confederate recruiters operated in the state, with Kentuckians serving on both sides. When Confederate troops moved into western Kentucky in September 1861, and Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant occupied Paducah, the legislature officially endorsed the Union. Pro-South Magoffin established a provisional government at Russellville, ratified the Confederate Constitution, and Kentucky was admitted to the Confederacy in December.
May 21, 1861 - Richmond Named Confederate Capital. The Confederate Congress votes to move the capital to Richmond, Virginia, a role it took from Montgomery, Alabama. The White House of the Confederacy, located a few blocks north of the State Capitol, was home to the family of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. In April of 1865, Richmond was burned by a retreating Confederate Army and was returned to the United States, becoming part of "Military District #1" during the Reconstruction period (1865-1870).
May 23, 1861 - Virginia Secedes from the Union. Virginia voters approve the Ordinance of Secession (132,201 to 37,451).
May 24, 1861 - Union Forces Occupy Alexandria, Va. At 2:00 a.m. on May 24, 1861, the day after the citizens of Virginia voted three to one to secede from the Union, 11 regiments of Union soldiers invaded Virginia and occupied the countryside across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The few Rebel pickets in Arlington, the town directly across the river from Washington, quickly retreated from the two Union columns that descended upon them. Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's spacious estate on Arlington Heights was quickly occupied as a Union military command post. The 700 Virginia militiamen stationed six miles downstream at Alexandria, an important port and railroad center, were warned of this invasion in time for all but 35 of them to retreat through one end of town as Union troops rushed in the other. Two Union forces converged on Alexandria. Col. Orlando B. Wilcox and his 1st Michigan Regiment marched down from Arlington and Col. Elmer E. Ellsworth and his exotically dressed 11th New York Zouave Regiment arrived at the Alexandria wharf aboard three river steamers. The Zouaves rushed ashore at daybreak and quickly secured the railroad station and telegraph office. As Ellsworth moved through the town, he spied a large Confederate flag flying from atop an inn called the Marshall House. Ellsworth rushed into the inn with four companions, climbed the stairs to the top, and cut down the flag. As they were going back down with the flag, innkeeper James W. Jackson met them at the third floor landing with a double-barreled shotgun in his hands. Jackson was killed—shot in the face, bayoneted, and pushed down the steps—but not before he pulled the trigger and killed Ellsworth. The Union invasion was a resounding success. The 24 year old Ellsworth had been a personal friend of President Abraham Lincoln, and his body lay in state at the White House. Ellsworth became a Union martyr, and babies, streets, and even towns were named after him.
May 23, 1861 - Butler's Contraband Proclamation. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler declared as contraband three slaves who escaped to his lines at Fort Monroe, Virginia, and refused to return them to their master. By August 1,000 contrabands had joined Butler's camp.
May 28, 1861 - Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell is appointed Union commander of the Department of Northeastern Virginia.
June 3, 1861 - Death of Stephen Douglas. Stephen A. Douglas dies unexpectedly in Chicago of acute rheumatis at the age of 48. Abraham Lincoln initiates a mourning period of 30 days.
June 3, 1861 - The Battle of Philippi. When Confederate forces, numbering about 800 men, threatened to seize control of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O) at Grafton, W.Va., the South's troops were met by 3,000 federal troops under the general command of Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan. Col. Thomas A. Morris, temporarily in command of Union forces in western Virginia, mounted a two-prong advance under Col. Ebenezer Dumont of the 7th Indiana Volunteers and Col. Benjamin F. Kelley of the 1st (West) Virginia volunteers against a small Confederate occupation force at Philippi under Col. George Porterfield. Kelley marched on back roads from near Grafton on June 2 to reach the rear of the town, while Dumont moved south from Webster. Both columns arrived at Philippi, about 15 miles south of Grafton, before dawn on the 3rd. The surprise attack routed the Confederate troops, forcing them to retreat to Huttonsville. The Battle of Philippi became the first land battle of the Civil War involving organized troops and the Union's use of the railroad to deploy troops to the area, to rapidly engage enemy troops, was likely the first such use in the world history of warfare.
June 8, 1861 - Tennessee secedes from the Union. Tennessee voters approve secession by a vote of 104,913 to 47,238.
June 10, 1861 - Battle of Big Bethel. This was the first land battle in Virginia. Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler sent converging columns from Hampton and Newport News against advanced Confederate outposts at Little and Big Bethel. Confederates abandoned Little Bethel and fell back to their entrenchments behind Brick Kiln Creek, near Big Bethel Church. The Federals, under immediate command of Brig. Gen. Ebenezer W. Pierce, pursued, attacked frontally along the road, and were repulsed. Crossing downstream, the 5th New York Zouaves attempted to turn the Confederate left flank, but were repulsed. Unit commander Col. T. Wynthrop was killed. The Union forces were disorganized and retired, returning to Hampton and Newport News. The Confederates suffered 1 killed, 7 wounded.
June 10, 1861 - France Proclaims Neutrality. Napoleon III declares French neutrality in the Civil War.
June 11-25, 1861 - The Second Wheeling Convention. With the adoption of Virginia's Ordinance of Secession on May 23, the Second Wheeling Convention began on June 11 as decided at the First Convention in May. The first measures adopted at the Convention ruled that 88 delegates representing 32 counties were entitled to seats in the convention, though other delegates would be accepted later. Arthur I. Boreman was selected to serve as president, and he declared, "We are determined to live under a State Government in the United States of America and under the Constitution of the United States." On June 13, John Carlile introduced to the Convention "A Declaration of the People of Virginia," a document calling for the reorganization of the state government on the grounds that Vriginia's secession had in effect vacated all offices of the existing government. Carlile presented an ordinance for this purpose the next day, beginning the debate. Virtually all the delegates at the Convention recognized the differences between East and West Virginia as irreconcileable and supported some sort of separation; the disagreement was over how this separation should occur. Dennis Dorsey of Monongalia County called for permanent and decisive separation from Eastern Virginia. Carlile, however, though he had called for a similar plan during the First Convention, persuaded the delegates that Constitutional restrictions made it necessary for the formation of a loyal government of Virginia, whose legislature could then give permission for the creation of a new state. On June 19, delegates approved this plan unanimously. The next day, June 20, officials were selected to fill the offices of the Virginia state government. Francis H. Pierpont of Marion County was elected governor. On June 25, the Convention adjourned until August 6. (West Virginia is formally admitted to the Union on June 20, 1863).
July 4, 1861 - Special Session of Congress. The first session of the 37th Congress of the United States met in Washington on Thursday, July 4, 1861, called to special session by the President after the fall of Fort Sumter. The Southern sympathizers were a small minority. The Republicans had complete control of both houses of Congress. Of the 48 senators, 32 were Republicans, and of the 176 representatives, 106 were Republicans. The House quickly elected a pro-war speaker, Galusha Grow of Pennsylvania. New Englanders now controlled the four powerful Senate committees that influenced war policy. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, still scarred from the murderous caning given him by Senator Brooks, was chairman of Foreign Relations, and his colleague, Henry Wilson, presided over Military Affairs. John P. Hale of New Hampshire was in charge of Naval Affairs, and William P. Fessenden of Maine led the Finance committee. These men and their associates, most prominently Senator Benjamin F. Wade of Ohio and Senator Zachariah Chandler of Michigan, were all radical Republicans, determined to punish the South and put an end to slavery once and for all. In the House, clubfooted old Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, a bitter enemy of the South and its "peculiar institution," ran the powerful Committee on Ways and Means, which exerted control on government appropriations. On the first day of the session, President Abraham Lincoln addressed the body in a joint session. The president listed the actions he had taken on his own authority: he had called up the militia; declared a blockade of the Confederacy; increased the regular military forces; suspended the writ habeas corpus; and committed the government to great expenditures. All this had been done without Congressional approval, and Lincoln needed that approval to proceed further. He states the war is "a People's contest . . . a struggle for maintaining in the world, that form, and substance of government, whose leading object is, to elevate the condition of men . . . " The Congress authorizes a call for 500,000 men.
July 5, 1861 - The Battle of Carthage. Brig. Gen. Nathaniel Lyon had chased Missouri Governor Claiborne F. Jackson and approximately 4,000 State Militia from the State Capital at Jefferson City and from Boonville, and pursued them. Col. Franz Sigel led another force of about 1,000 into southwest Missouri in search of the governor and his loyal troops. Upon learning that Sigel had encamped at Carthage, on the night of July 4, Jackson took command of the troops with him and formulated a plan to attack the much smaller Union force. The next morning, Jackson closed up to Sigel, established a battle line on a ridge ten miles north of Carthage, and induced Sigel to attack him. Opening with artillery fire, Sigel closed to the attack. Seeing a large Confederate force—actually unarmed recruits—moving into the woods on his left, he feared that they would turn his flank. He withdrew. The Confederates pursued, but Sigel conducted a successful rearguard action. By evening, Sigel was inside Carthage and under cover of darkness; he retreated to Sarcoxie. The battle had little meaning, but the pro-Southern elements in Missouri, anxious for any good news, championed their first victory.
July 21, 1861 - Battle of Bull Run (First Manassas). This was the first major land battle of the armies in Virginia. On July 16, 1861, the untried Union army under Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell, prodded to attack by politicians in Washington who wanted a quick victory to solidify their standing, marched from Washington against the Confederate army, which was drawn up behind Bull Run beyond Centreville under Brig. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston and Brig. Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard. McDowell's plan was to use Brig. Gen. Daniel Tyler's division to feint an attack on Stone Bridge, which went across Bull Run, while Colonel Thomas A. Davies' brigade would feint at Blackburn's Ford. Under cover of these feigning maneuvers, the main attack would be by Brig. Gens. David Hunter and Samuel P. Heintzelman on the Confederate left flank (the Union's right). This was a sound plan; however, McDowell's forces were much too inexperienced to carry it out effectively. On the July 21, McDowell crossed at Sudley Ford and attacked the Confederate left flank on Matthews Hill. The Confederate troops were also in disorder. Commanded overall by Brig. Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard (the hero of Fort Sumter), their order of battle was rather unwieldy, with about one third of their troops still marching from the Shenandoah Valley. Only a small brigade under Colonel Nathan Evans stood in the path of the Union Army. Had this unit faltered, or not been present, the flank attack would have succeeded. Ultimately these few men were unable to hold their positions after the entire Federal army attacked. Fighting raged throughout the day as Confederate forces were driven back to Henry Hill. Confederate Brig. Gen. Barnard E. Bee, having recently resigned from the U. S. Army and still wearing his blue uniform, realized that the army's left flank was seriously exposed. Gen. Bee ordered the Fourth Alabama to advance rapidly in order to plug the gap in the Confederate line. For over an hour, the Fourth Alabama held its position and repulsed several Union regiments. To inspire his troops, Gen. Bee remarked, "There stands Jackson like a stone wall! Rally behind the Virginians!" giving Thomas J. Jackson his legendary nom de guerre. The stand of the Fourth Alabama stalled the Union advance and gave the Confederate forces more time to regroup. Late in the afternoon, Confederate reinforcements from the Army of the Shenandoah, under Brig. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, arrived (one brigade arriving by rail) and extended and broke the Union right flank. The Federal retreat rapidly deteriorated into a rout. Although victorious, Confederate forces were too disorganized to pursue. Confederate Gen. Bee and Col. Francis Stebbins Bartow were killed. Much of Washington society had turned out for a trip to Bull Run, Va., to watch the Federal troops crush the Rebels, including Senators Benjamin F. Wade, Lyman Trumbull, Zachariah Chandler, and James W. Grimes. But confusion was the order of the day. In the general flight that followed, as many as 12,000 soldiers could be seen wandering about aimlessly in the smoke of battle. Further confusion ensued when an artillery shell fell on a carriage, blocking the main road north. A panicked mix of wagon and carriage, of soldier and civilian, retreated back to the capital. By July 22, the shattered Union army reached the safety of Washington. The news of Union defeat came to the Rev. Henry Cox of Illinois while he was preaching. He closed the service with "Brethren, we'd better adjourn this camp-meeting and go home and drill." President Lincoln realizes the war will be long. "It's damned bad," he comments. This battle convinced the Lincoln administration that the war would be a long and costly affair. McDowell was relieved of command of the Union army and replaced by Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan (July 27), who set about reorganizing and training the troops.
July 25, 1861 - Crittenden-Johnson Resolution. U.S. Congress passes the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution stating that the war is being fought to preserve the Union, not to destroy slavery. The resolution required the Union Government to take no actions against institution of slavery. It was named for Senators John J. Crittenden of Kentucky and Andrew Johnson of Tennessee (who was later to become President). The war was fought not for "overthrowing or interfering with the rights or established institutions of those States," but to "defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution and to preserve the Union."
July-August, 1861 - Baylor's Arizona Campaign. In July 1861, a force of Texans under Lt. Colonel John Baylor arrived in El Paso, Texas, across the border from Mesilla. With support from the secessionist residents of Mesilla, Baylor's troops entered the territory and took a position in the city on July 25. Nearby Union forces under Isaac Lynde prepared to attack Baylor. On July 27 the two armies met outside of town at Battle of Mesilla in which the Confederates forced the Union troops to surrender. On August 1, 1861, Baylor proclaimed the existence of a Confederate Arizona Territory out of the area defined in the Tucson convention the previous year. He appointed himself as permanent governor. In 1862 Baylor was ousted as Governor of the territory by Jefferson Davis, and the Confederate loss at the battle of Glorietta Pass (March 26-28, 1862) forced their retreat from the territory.
July 27, 1861 - McClellan Appointed Commander of the Department of the Potomac. President Abraham Lincoln appoints George B. McClellan as Commander of the Department of the Potomac, replacing Irvin McDowell.
August 5, 1861 - The First Income Tax. The first Federal income tax was levied to help pay for the Union war effort. In the summer of 1861, Salmon P. Chase reported to the Congress that he would need $320 million over the next fiscal year to finance the war. He thought he could put his hands on $300 million by borrowing part of it and raising the rest through existing taxes and sale of public lands. He left it up to Congress to come up with a way to raise the remaining $20 million. After weighing their options, the House Ways and Means Committee drew up a bill to tax personal and corporate incomes. The first income tax was moderately progressive and ungraduated, imposing a 3 percent tax on annual incomes over $800 that exempted most wage earners. These taxes were not even collected until 1862, making alternative financing schemes like the Legal Tender Act critical in the interim.
August 6, 1861 - The First Confiscation Act. Congress enacts the first Confiscation Act ("An Act to confiscate Property used for Insurrectionary Purposes"), authorizing the confiscation of all property, including slaves, used actively to support the Confederacy. The Act, strongly supported by Thaddeus Stevens, was passed in response to slaves' choice to run from their owners and attempt to get within Union lines for protection. It allowed the use by the Union army of runaway slaves as a labor force to support their war effort, and to undermine the war effort of their enemy.
August 10, 1861 - The Battle of Wilson's Creek (Oak Hills). The battle fought on August 10, 1861, was the first major Civil War engagement west of the Mississippi River, involving about 5,400 Union troops and 12,000 Confederates. Union Brig. Gen. Nathaniel Lyon's Army of the West was camped at Springfield, Missouri, with Confederate troops under the commands of Brig. Gen. Ben McCulloch and Sterling "Pap Price, commander of the Missouri secessionist militia, approaching. On August 9, both sides formulated plans to attack the other. About 5:00 a.m. on the 10th, Lyon, in two columns commanded by himself and Col. Franz Sigel, attacked the Confederates on Wilson's Creek about 12 miles southwest of Springfield. Rebel cavalry received the first blow and fell back away from Bloody Hill. Confederate forces soon rushed up and stabilized their positions. The Confederates attacked the Union forces three times that day but failed to break through the Union line. Lyon was killed during the battle (the first Union general to be killed in combat) and Maj. Samuel D. Sturgis replaced him. Meanwhile, the Confederates had routed Sigel's column, south of Skegg's Branch. Following the third Confederate attack, which ended at 11:00 am, the Confederates withdrew. Sturgis realized, however, that his men were exhausted and his ammunition was low, so he ordered a retreat to Springfield. The Confederates were too disorganized and ill-equipped to pursue. This Confederate victory buoyed southern sympathizers in Missouri and served as a springboard for a bold thrust north that carried Price and his Missouri State Guard as far as Lexington. Wilson's Creek, the most significant 1861 battle in Missouri, gave the Confederates control of southwestern Missouri. The battle led to greater federal military activity in Missouri, and set the stage for the Battle of Pea Ridge in March 1862.
August 26, 1861 - Butler's North Carolina Coastal Campaign. To make the blockade of the southern coasts effective and to prevent privateering, a joint naval and military expedition under Flag Officer Silas Stringham and Army Major Benjamin F. Butler is sent out to take key positions on the coast. On August 26 1861, the Federal fleet embarked from Fort Monroe and headed south. The fleet's target was Hatteras Inlet, an important haven for blockade-runners. On the August 28, while the navy bombarded Forts Clark and Hatteras, Union troops came ashore and attacked the rear of the Hatteras Inlet Batteries (Aug. 28-29). On August 29, Col. William F. Martin surrendered the Confederate garrison of 670. The Federals lost only one man. Two regiments and some of the smaller warships were left there while the fleet returned to Hampton Roads for reinforcements. The Confederates were as dejected as Lincoln was elated. There was nothing they could do to eject the Federals, and the Union could obviously move at will against any point on the North Carolina coast. A newspaperman in Raleigh wrote: "The whole of the eastern part of the state is now exposed to the ravages of merciless vandals . . . Our state is now plunged into a great deal of trouble."
August-September, 1861 - Frémont's Emancipation Proclamation. On August 30 Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont, commander of the Union Army in St. Louis, proclaimed that all slaves owned by Confederates in Missouri were "forever free." He had not informed President Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was furious when he heard the news as he feared that this action would force slave-owners in border states to help the Confederates. Lincoln asked Frémont to modify his proclamation to conform to official policy, which under the Confiscation Act of 1861, freed only those slaves used by Confederates to aid the war effort and did not extend to general abolition. Frémont refused. This placed the president, who later called Frémont's act "dictatorial", in a very difficult political position. He could not risk alienating the conservatives in this crucial border state; yet he did not wish to upset the Radical Republicans who were pressing for abolition. The president felt he needed to be cautious; at this stage of the war, Union victories were not numerous enough to justify bold political actions. Lincoln wrote to Frémont: "Can it be pretended that it is any longer the government of the U.S.—any government of Constitution and laws—wherein a General, or a President, may make permanent rules of property by proclamation." The President revoked Frémont's proclamation on September 11. On October 24, Frémont was relieved of his command and replaced by Gen. Henry W. Halleck, who assumed command of the Department of the Missouri on November 19, 1861 and issued an order forbidding runaway slaves from seeking permission to be protected by the Union Army. Radical Republicans were furious with Lincoln for sacking Frémont. The Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, William P. Fessenden, described Lincoln's actions as "a weak and unjustifiable concession in the Union men of the border states." Charles Sumner wrote to Lincoln complaining about his actions and remarked how sad it was "to have the power of a god and not use it godlike".
September-October, 1861 - Polk Invades Kentucky. Confederate General Leonidas Polk invades neutral Kentucky, prompting the state legislature to ask for Union assistance. On September 4 General Leonidas Polk and a large Confederate Army moved into Kentucky, occupied Columbus and began occupying high ground overlooking the Ohio River. Ulysses S. Grant had been assembling his Union Army at Cairo, Illinois. News reaches him on September 5 of the Confederate advance. Grant then occupies Paducah, Kentucky, on September 6 and quickly gained control of the mouths of the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers as they flowed into the Ohio, preventing the Confederates from consolidating their defense line in Kentucky. The capture of Paducah gave the Union control the mouth of the Tennessee River. Throughout most of the war, U.S. Colonel Stephen G. Hicks was in charge of Paducah and massive Union supply depots and dock facilities for the gunboats and supply ships that supported Federal forces along the Ohio, Mississippi and Tennessee River systems. On September 7, the newly elected pro-Unionist legislature of Kentucky orders the American flag to be hoisted over the capitol at Frankfort and shortly thereafter asks the Confederate forces occupying Columbus, Kentucky to withdraw. President Jefferson Davis, aware that Union forces now controlled the main waterway into the heartland of the Confederacy, sent in General Joseph E. Johnston with reinforcements.
October 1861-March 1862 - Confederates Close the Potomac. After victory at First Manassas, the Confederate army established a defensive line from Centreville along the Occoquan River to the Potomac River. In October, the Confederates constructed batteries at Evansport, Freestone Point, Shipping Point, and Cockpit Point to close the Potomac River to shipping and isolate Washington. By mid-December, the Confederates had 37 heavy guns in position along the river. On January 3, Cockpit Point was shelled by Anacostia and Yankee with neither side gaining an advantage. Union ships approached the point again on March 9 but discovered that the Confederates had abandoned their works and retired closer to Richmond, after effectively sealing off the Potomac River for nearly five months.
October 9, 1861 - Battle of Santa Rosa Island. Santa Rosa Island is a 40-mile barrier island located Florida, thirty miles from the Alabama state border. At the western end of the island stood Fort Pickens, which in the fall of 1861 was garrrisoned by parts of the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th U. S. artillery and the 3d U.S. infantry, under command of Col. Harvey Brown, of the 5th artillery. The 6th N.Y. volunteer infantry, commanded by Col. William Wilson, was encamped outside of and a short distance east of the fort. On the night of the October 9 some 1,200 or 1,500 Confederates, commanded by Brig.-Gen. Richard H. Anderson, landed about 3 or 4 miles above the fort and marched down the island in three columns, the object being to surprise and capture the garrison. About 3:30 a. m. on the 9th the pickets were suddenly attacked and driven in, and a terrific fire was opened on the camp of the 6th N. Y. Col. Wilson tried to rally his men, but the sudden and unexpected assault threw them into a panic and only a few answered the call. These, however, bravely stood their ground until reinforced by Maj. Arnold, of the 1st artillery, with a detachment of regulars, from the fort, when the Confederates were driven back to their landing place, closely pressed by about one-fifth their number, who kept up the fire until the boats were out of range. The Union loss was 14 killed, 29 wounded and 24 captured or missing. General Braxton Bragg, commanding the Confederate forces at Pensacola, reported their loss as "30 or 40 killed and wounded," but a Confederate newspaper, found by Lieut. Seeley a few days after the occurrence, gave the total casualties as 175. Maj. Vodges, of the 1st artillery, was captured, and on the Confederate side Gen. Anderson was severely wounded. The camp of the 6th N.Y. was partially destroyed.
October 21, 1861 - Battle of Ball's Bluff (Leesburg). Confederate Brig. Gen. Nathan "Shanks" Evans stopped a badly coordinated attempt by Union forces under Brig. Gen. Charles P. Stone to cross the Potomac at Harrison's Island and capture Leesburg. A timely Confederate counterattack drove the Federals over the bluff and into the river. More than 700 Federals were captured. Col. Edward D. Baker (a U.S. Senator from Oregon and close friend of President Lincoln) was killed. This Union rout had severe political ramifications in Washington. Six weeks later, Congress created the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War in part to discover the causes of that debacle. Mostly for political reasons, the committee blamed General Stone for what more properly were Colonel Baker's mistakes. As a result, Stone was jailed for six months in 1862 and his promising career came to an end.
October 24, 1861 - President Abraham Lincoln receives the first transcontinental telegraph message.
October 28, 1861 - Missouri Joins the Confederacy. Deposed Missouri Governor Claiborne F. Jackson Jackson convenes a rump convention in Neosho, Mo., which passes an ordinance of secession. Missouri joins the Confederate States of America in November 1861.
October 31, 1861 - Winfield Scott Resigns. Union General Winfield Scott resigns as Commander of the United States Army, citing failing health.
November 1, 1861 - McClellan Appointed General-in-Chief. President Abraham Lincoln appoints George B. McClellan (1826-85) as general-in-chief of all Union forces after the resignation of the aged Winfield Scott. Lincoln tells McClellan, " . . . the supreme command of the Army will entail a vast labor upon you." McClellan responds, "I can do it all." He developed a strategy to defeat the Confederate Army that included an army of 273,000 men. His plan was to invade Virginia from the sea and to seize Richmond and the other major cities in the South. McClellan believed that to keep resistance to a minimum, it should be made clear that the Union forces would not interfere wit