Armies mass at Manassas Junction

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Stone Bridge over Bull Run

• Third session of Confederate Congress convenes in Richmond, Virginia, having moved from Montgomery, Alabama. /1861 
• Around Manassas Junction, Virginia, troops begin to mass. US Gen. Irvin McDowell has 1,300 men near Sudley Ford on Bull Run, a creek running by Manassas. Other Union troops travel by the Stone Bridge over Bull Run. Joseph Johnston's 1,400 Confederate troops, fresh from Shenandoah Valley join Jackson’s 2,500 and P.G. T. Beauregard’s at Manassas, yet problems have arisen in the transport of the troops. The troop train broke down, nearly defeating the Confederate army. The tension is high, and an ominous stillness hangs in the hot July air./1861 
• The New York Tribune compares Peace Democrats to the venomous Copperhead snake, which strikes without warning. During the War, Northerners who advocated a negotiated settlement with the South become known as Peace Democrats or Copperheads./1861

Related articles

• Skirmishes at Blackburn's, Mitchell's Ford (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• McDowell moves on Manassas Junction (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Feds try to stop Johnston's movement toward Manassas (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• July 18, 1861: The Battle of Blackburn's Ford (civilwar-online.com)
• Battle of Blackburn's Ford and Johnston Steals a March (civilwardailygazette.com)
• Johnston to reinforce Beauregard at Manassas (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• July 11, 1861: P.G.T. Beauregard to Jefferson Davis (civilwar-online.com)
• First battle of Civil War still relevant 

Newport News falls; Aquia Creek bombarded

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Dorothea Dix

• President Jefferson Davis arrives in Richmond, Virginia, and sets up office in the Spotswood Hotel, making Richmond the new Confederate capitol./1861 
• After promising to hire only older, homely women so soldiers would not be tempted to sin, Dorothea Dix is authorized today by US Secretary of War Simon Cameron to gather nurses to tend to wounded soldiers./1861
• Federal troops under US Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler occupy Newport News, Virginia./1861



Battle of Aquia Creek, Va., 5/29-6/1, 1861

• Also, as part of the Union blockade of the Chesapeake Bay, three Union naval vessels including the steamers USS Thomas and USS Freeborn, under command of Commodore James H. Ward begin a bombardment of little effect lasting until June 1 of the Confederate (Virginia Militia) batteries under command of Colonel Daniel Ruggles near the mouth of Aquia Creek in Stafford County, Virginia. The batteries are protecting the northern terminus of the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad to Richmond. The Virginians fear an amphibious landing of U.S. troops, but it does not materialize. The bombardment, with ten total casualties, will not gain either side an advantage, though the batteries are later withdrawn./1861

Related articles

• May 10, 1861: Lee placed in charge of Virginia (civilwar-online.com)
• June 1, 1861: Union ships bombard Confederate batteries at Aquia Creek (civilwar-online.com)
• Skirmish at Fairfax; More at Aquia Creek; A Halt at Grafton (civilwardailygazette.com)

McClellan invades western Virginia; Mobile, New Orleans blockaded

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G.B. McClellan

• US Major General George B. McClellan crosses the Ohio River with Ohio State troops to cover northwestern Virginia, ordering the 1^st Virginia (US) Infantry under command of Colonel Benjamin F. Kelley to move on Grafton, western Virginia, to protect the B&O Railroad/1861 
• Georgia Governor Joseph E. Brown receives a letter from Virginia Militia Major General Robert E. Lee, noting that many Georgia volunteer companies arriving in Virginia did not have weapons. Lee requests Brown to please send any firearms or other equipment with Georgia recruits coming north to defend the South./1861
• Lincoln’s Postmaster General, Montgomery Blair announces the halt of all postal connections with the Confederate States as of May 31, but mail communication across the lines would continue throughout the war under flag of truce./1861
• The US naval blockade is emplaced at Mobile, Alabama, and New Orleans, Louisiana. The United States sloop of war Brooklyn, lately involved with the relief of Fort Pickens, at Pensacola, Florida, directs the blockade at New Orleans./1861

Related articles

• George McClellan Goes National; Scott's Anaconda Plan; More Troops (civilwardailygazette.com)
• May 14, 1861: Hampton Roads blockade nabs four more ships (civilwar-online.com)
• Lee to command Virginia militia (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Lee Makes Moves into Western Virginia (civilwardailygazette.com)
• May 10, 1861: Lee placed in charge of Virginia (civilwar-online.com)
• May 2, 1861: Winfield Scott's Anaconda Plan (gathkinsons.net)

Capital moves to Richmond; Price-Harney Truce in St. Louis

Virginia Capitol to host Confederate Congress

• Following a May 11 vote by states 5-3 to move the capital to Richmond, Virginia, Confederate Congress today votes to move the Confederacy’s capital to Richmond, Virginia, and President Jefferson Davis signs an act ordering payment into the cash-strapped Confederate treasury of all monies owed to Northern creditors. The second Congressional session adjourns in Montgomery, Alabama, to reconvene in Richmond./1861 
• At Hampton Roads, Virginia, across from Union-controlled Fortress Monroe, the USS Monticello in its efforts to blockade the Chesapeake Bay, again fires two shots at the Sewall’s Point battery but draws off when Georgia troops manning the battery returns fire with a Georgia flag flying and under command of Captain Peyton H. Colquitt./1861
• Meanwhile at Washington, D.C., 11,000 Union troops cross the Potomac River to invade Virginia Soil with a goal to seize Alexandria, Virginia./1861 

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Sterling Price

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William S. Harney

• In St. Louis, Missouri, US Brigadier General William S. Harney and Major General Sterling Price of the new Missouri State Guard meet and sign the Price-Harney Truce putting the Federal military in charge of St. Louis, and leaving state forces to control the rest of Missouri. In return, Missouri will declare neutrality in the War. Missouri unionists consider the agreement a capitulation to Governor Claiborne F. Jackson and the secessionists./1861

Related articles

• Richmond the new capital, St. Louis Riots continue (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• St. Louis Massacre (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)

US Navy shells Sewall's Point, Va.; Arkansas admitted to Confederacy

Confederate batteries at Craney Island & Sewall's Point

• In its first acknowledged offensive against the Confederacy, the Union Navy engages Confederate batteries at Sewall’s Point, Virginia, near Norfolk,opposite Federally-held Fortress Monroe. This is the second action (after Gloucester) as part of its blockade of the Chesapeake Bay. Two Union gunboats, including USS Monticello, both under command of Navy Lieutenant D.L. Braine, duel with Confederate batteries on Sewell's Point under command of Brig. Gen. Walter Gwynn and Capt. Peyton Colquitt in an attempt to enforce the blockade of Hampton Roads at the mouth of the Rappahannock River, completing the full blockade of Virginia. The two sides do each other little harm over two days of shelling. There are only ten casualties total on both sides. /1861

• Confederate Congress in Montgomery, Alabama, votes to admit Arkansas to the Confederate States of America./1861

• 

  Francis Blair, Jr.

  In another administrative bungling act, President Lincoln had made matters at the Federal Arsenal at St. Louis, Missouri, even more confusing. The military chief there, Gen. William S. Harney, had been relieved of command on April 21, then reappointed May 8. Next Lincoln had sent a letter to local Unconditional Union Republican politician Francis Blair, Jr., giving him authority at his discretion to recommend to Lincoln whether to relieve Harney again because the general was suspected of tolerating Confederate elements. Today Lincoln sends Blair (brother of Postmaster General Montgomery Blair and brother-in-law of Gustavus V. Fox) yet another letter, rescinding his first one./1861

Related articles

• St. Louis Massacre (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Richmond the new capital, St. Louis Riots continue (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• May 1, 1861: General Harney denounces secession (gathkinsons.net)
• March 19, 1861: A mission for Gustavus V. Fox (civilwar-online.com)
• Act of war: Sumter relief fleet sails for Charleston (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)

Tennessee admitted; Kentucky proposes neutrality

First National CSA Flag with 9 stars

• In Montgomery, Alabama, the Confederate Congress officially and with ceremony admits the State of Tennessee to the Confederate States of America. In other business, the Confederate Congress authorizes the recruitment of 400,000 men for military service to repel Mr. Lincoln’s invasion of a people who want only to be independent./1861 
• Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, arresting anyone in Baltimore, Maryland, he thinks might be sympathetic to the Confederate cause, imprisons Ross Winans, long-time inventor and locomotive builder, of Baltimore, at Fort McHenry./1861
• The Confederate Treasury Department issues $50,000,000 in 8% bonds and $20,000,000 worth of treasury notes./1861 
• The Kentucky legislature proposes that the state maintain a position of neutral status in the War./1861
• A bridge on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad is destroyed by Southern sympathizers/1861
• General Winfield Scott orders that Arlington Heights, Virginia, be fortified./1861
• US Commander John Rodgers is ordered to take command of United States naval operations on rivers of the American West./1861

Related articles

• Tennessee, Arkansas both secede (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Upper South in turmoil (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Washington's security worries Lincoln (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)

Richmond the new capital, St. Louis Riots continue

St. Louis riots continue a 2nd day

• Confederate Congress votes by States 5 to 3 to move the capital to Richmond, Virginia. The three against are Florida, South Carolina, and Alabama/1861 
• In Wheeling, western Virginia, and San Francisco, California, pro-Union demonstrations are held though strong secessionist sympathies are also found in the Bay Area./1861

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US Capt N. Lyon

• In St. Louis, Missouri, the disturbance and deaths which US Captain Nathaniel Lyon caused yesterday continues overnight. The city’s mayor, trying to calm the city, orders all saloons closed. Today shots are fired at the German Volunteers at the intersection of 5th and Walnut streets and once again they return fire into the mob. Capt. Nathaniel Lyon sends in the US 5th Reserve Regiment to handle the still-angry crowd of St. Louis civilians, and the regiment again fires on the citizens, killing six or seven. Eventually, Lyon restores Federal control by implementing martial law, and the outgunned secessionists slowly back down. Later in the evening, US General William S. Harney, Capt. Lyon’s commanding officer, returns to St. Louis and is most unhappy at Lyon’s provocation of the now hostile city. In reaction, the Missouri General Assembly approves the previously stalled “Military Bill,” putting Missouri on a war footing, granting

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  Gov. C.F. Jackson

  Governor Claiborne Jackson wide executive powers, and creating a new Missouri State Guard to resist the Union invasion with Sterling Price as its Major General. Unionists call it a "secession act in all but name."/1861
• The US Navy begins the blockade of Charleston, South Carolina, with the arrival of the steamer Niagara./1861
•  In Little Rock, Arkansas, a political clash between Governor Henry Rector and the Arkansas Secession Convention erupts regarding who holds authority in the now seceded state. The convention creates a military board to command the state’s armed forces, but many members of the militia refuse to follow the board’s orders./1861

Related articles

• April 29, 1861: Lyon seizes the St. Louis Arsenal (gathkinsons.net)
• April 21, 1861: Lyon authorized to muster troops (gathkinsons.net)
• St. Louis Massacre (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• May 10, 1861: The Camp Jackson affair (gathkinsons.net)
• More Blood in St. Louis; Jackson Needs More Guns (civilwardailygazette.com)
• Deadly Riots in St. Louis; Western Virginia's Rebellion Against Rebellion (civilwardailygazette.com)
• May 10, 1861: Sherman witnesses the "Battle" of St. Louis (civilwar-online.com)

St. Louis Massacre

• The border state of Missouri has assets that both sides want to appropriate for themselves. While his commanding officer at the St. Louis Federal Arsenal, US General William S. Harney is out of town, US Captain Nathaniel Lyon with 6,000 combined militia and regulars including Francis Blair Jr.’s disliked German-immigrant Home Guard, marches 4 ½ miles from the arsenal to attack the 669 Missouri Volunteer Militia under command of General Daniel M. Frost at Camp Jackson. In the fight, Lyon seizes the Camp Jackson barracks. 

Frost peacefully surrenders his 669 men and 1,200 valuable Model 1855 Springfield Rifles, but the Missouri Militiamen refuse to take an oath of allegiance to the Federal government. Capt. Lyon then places them all under arrest and in his arrogance decides to humiliate the surrendered state militiamen and march them through the downtown St. Louis streets toward the federal arsenal before paroling them and ordering them to disperse. To add to the insult, Lyon placed the captured militiamen between two lines of the armed German Home Guards. Bad idea. 

When the local citizenry sees this display, their anger boils over in mass riots, with civilians hurling rocks, paving stones, and insults at Lyon’s men, especially the Germans. Then a drunkard stumbles into the path of the marching soldiers, and fires a pistol into their ranks, fatally wounding Captain Constantin Blandowski. Capt. Lyon’s men, especially the German Home Guard respond by firing first over the heads of the crowd, then into them, killing some 28 people, some of whom were women and children, and wounding over 100 more.  

Two uninvolved non-combatants who just happened to be in town that day were nearly killed in the shooting: William T. Sherman, walking with his son and brother-in-law, and Colonel Ulysses S. Grant of the 21st Illinois Volunteer Infantry. Thus, Federals secure control of St. Louis, Missouri, with the rifle and bayonet./1861

• President Jefferson Davis in Montgomery, Alabama, orders the purchase of warships and munitions for the Confederate government. Secretary of the Navy Stephen F. Mallory suggests the addition of ironclads to the small Confederate Navy, for advantage over the U.S. Navy’s much larger and more diverse fleet./1861
• President Lincoln directs the commander of U.S. forces on the Florida coast to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, "if he shall find it necessary."/1861
• In Wheeling, western Virginia, the first company of US Virginia Infantry is mustered into Federal service./1861

Related articles

• April 29, 1861: Lyon seizes the St. Louis Arsenal (gathkinsons.net)
• April 21, 1861: Lyon authorized to muster troops (gathkinsons.net)
• April 20, 1861: Liberty, MO arsenal seized by rebels (gathkinsons.net)
• Illinois militia steal St. Louis arsenal (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• May 1, 1861: General Harney denounces secession (gathkinsons.net)

Covert Confederate munitions arrive at St. Louis

St. Louis, Missouri in 1859

• At St. Louis, Missouri, Missouri Volunteer Militia officers meet a shipment of crates on board the steamer J.C. Swon at the St. Louis riverfront marked Tamoroa marble, and transport them to Camp Jackson, six miles inland. In mid-April, Governor Claiborne Jackson had sent two militia officers, Colton Green and Basil Duke, to President Jefferson Davis in Montgomery, Alabama, requesting artillery and mortars for an attack on the St. Louis Arsenal. The crates of Tamoroa marble shipped to the Missouri Volunteer Militia are in fact two 12 pound Howitzers, two 32 pound siege guns, five hundred muskets, and ammunition from assets seized from the Federal arsenal at Baton Rouge./1861
• At Newport, Rhode Island, the USS Constitution and the steamer Baltic (which had been the main ship in the Fox Expedition to Fort Sumter), prepare to set up the U.S. Naval Academy which has been moved from Annapolis, Maryland, because of uncertainties there./1861 
• While many on both sides have expected a short war and have called for volunteers for mere months, President Jefferson Davis today wisely and quietly signs a measure setting all future enlistments “for the duration of the war” rather than a set period of time. In other work today in Montgomery, Alabama, Davis dispatches James D. Bullock to Great Britain to purchase arms and vessels from the British for the Confederate cause./1861

• The Federal blockade of Virginia precipitates and exchange of gunfire between the Federal vessel Yankee and Confederate batteries on shore at Gloucester Point, Virginia./1861
• Texas State Militia captures United States troops at San Lucas Spring, Texas./1861

Related articles

• April 22, 1861: Two calls to arms in Missouri (gathkinsons.net)
• Illinois militia steal St. Louis arsenal (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Jackson removes arms from Harpers Ferry (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• April 29, 1861: Lyon seizes the St. Louis Arsenal (gathkinsons.net)
• April 20, 1861: Liberty, MO arsenal seized by rebels (gathkinsons.net)
• Missouri supports Crittenden Compromise; Arkansas to have referendum (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)

Virginia admitted to Confederacy, Unionist riots in Knoxville, Tennessee

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TN Gov Isham Harris

• In Nashville, the Tennessee legislature votes to form a military alliance with the Confederacy pending the June 8 public referendum on secession. Accordingly, Governor Isham Harris places the State Militia under Confederate control. Not everyone is happy, especially in Unionist East Tennessee. In Knoxville, Secessionists and Unionists clash in an open riot in the streets resulting in several injuries and one death, but the melee was such that no one knew which side the dead man was on. Governor Isham Harris, concerned about the maintenance of public safety, questions the wisdom of having the June 8 popular referendum on secession./1861
• In Montgomery, Alabama, Confederate Congress votes to admit Virginia to the Confederacy pending the May 23 public referendum ratifying Virginia’s secession./1861 
• U.S. Major Robert Anderson, who has gained notoriety as the Federal commander who surrendered Fort Sumter, is assigned to recruit volunteers for the Union cause in Kentucky and western Virginia./1861
• Union forces reestablish the rail route between Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and Washington, via Baltimore./1861

Tennessee, Arkansas both secede

Tennessee Secession flag 1861-1863

Arkansas secession cartoon

• In Nashville, the Tennessee legislature votes to put the question of secession before the people in a popular referendum on June 8. In the meantime, the state legislature votes 66-25 in favor of a “Declaration of Independence and Ordinance dissolving the federal relations between the State of Tennessee and the United States of America, thus becoming the ninth state to resume her full sovereignty and cast her lot with the Confederate States. The vote went along geographic lines. Secessionist Middle and West Tennessee outvotes Unionist East Tennessee./1861 
• In Little Rock, Arkansas, David Walker, chairman of the Arkansas Secession Convention, reconvenes the body and in light of Virginia’s secession and Lincoln’s demand for troops, the convention votes 69-1 to approve an ordinance of secession from the Union and join the Confederacy, the tenth state to do so. The lone dissenting vote is cast by Isaac Murphy, who would later serve as Arkansas’s first governor during Reconstruction./1861  
• A Unionist rally is held in Fairmont, western Virginia./1861
• In Montgomery, Alabama, President Jefferson Davis gives approval to the Confederate Congressional bill declaring a state of war between the United States and the Confederate States./1861
• The New Orleans Bee reports that people holding US postage stamps must use them by June 1, 1861./1861

Related articles

• May 6: More states secede (gathkinsons.net)
• Maryland rejects secession (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Virginia secedes (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Arkansas secedes from the Union, May 6, 1861 (politico.com)

Jackson removes arms from Harpers Ferry

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Harper's Ferry, Virginia

• In Montgomery, Alabama, Congressman Walter Brooke of Mississippi introduces a bill in Confederate Congress to move the capital city to Richmond, Virginia./1861
• President Lincoln writes Gustavus V. Fox, to encourage him as he was deeply disappointed he could not resupply Fort Sumter in time to keep Major Anderson in the fort. Lincoln’s encouragement shows from his own hand his shrewd plan to force war on the South, “You and I both anticipated that the cause of the country would be advanced by making the attempt . . . even if it should fail."/1861
• Soldiers of the 6^th Massachusetts Regiment who were killed in the Baltimore riots on April 19 are honored at ceremonies in Boston./1861
• Governor Letcher of Virginia calls for volunteers for the Confederate army while in Nebraska Territory, a call for volunteers to support the Union goes out./1861
• In one of his first orders as commander of the State Militia, Major General Robert E. Lee orders Major Thomas J. Jackson to the arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, to remove all weapons and equipment for gun and cannon manufacturing as well as any other munitions and move them South to keep them from the danger of being stolen by Federal forces from the north or Unionist sympathizers from Virginia./1861

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Missouri Gov. Jackson

• Missouri Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson, part of the Unionist Douglas faction of the Democratic party, but privately a secessionist, calls out the Missouri Volunteer Militia for maneuvers about 4.5 miles northwest of the St. Louis Federal Arsenal at a place called Lindell's Grove. The militia, under command of General David M. Frost, names their training ground Camp Jackson after their governor. Governor Jackson wants them to prepare to assault and take the Federal Arsenal, the largest depository of munitions west of the Appalachian Mountains./1861
• Federal forces seize two Confederate ships in the waters of the Atlantic, and the U.S. Navy blockades the mouth of the James River./1861
• Union army officer James R. Greene, assisting in the evacuation of US troops from Texas, reports to fellow officer C. C. Sibley that, while carrying out his responsibility, he had heard a rumor that his command was to be made prisoners of war. Not believing it, he still checked it out and found it to be true./1861

Related articles

• April 27, 1861: Lee orders Jackson to Harper's Ferry (civilwar-online.com)
• Lee to command Virginia militia (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Lincoln suspends writ of habeas corpus (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)