Beauregard takes command; Jackson burns B&O assets
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| T.J. Jackson |
- Miscommunication and zeal lead the Confederate forces under Colonel Thomas J. Jackson in western Virginia to continue destroying Baltimore and Ohio Railroad assets. Major General Robert E. Lee had on May 6 ordered Jackson to destroy B&O railroad bridges to frustrate the Union advance on Harper's Ferry. After burning the B&O Railroad bridge over Opequon Creek two miles east of Martinsburg, western Virginia, Jackson’s men set fire to fifty coal cars and run them off the destroyed trestle, where they will burn for two months, the intense heat melting the axles and wheels. The fifty-two remaining locomotives and rail cars at the round house in Martinsburg are thereby left stranded, preventing their removal by rail to the south./1861
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| PGT Beauregard |
- Gen. Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard takes command of the Confederate Army of the Potomac at the Alexandria Line, succeeding Milledge L. Bonham. The immediate concern is Col. R.F. Kelley in western Virginia who is moving US troops despite driving rain. Beauregard’s command would become known as the Army of Northern Virginia./1861
- The privateer Savannah leaves Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, to go hunting for Yankee trading vessels./1861
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