Confederate Congress adjourns; Lee, others made full general

• In Washington, the Asst. Sec. of Navy Gustavus V. Fox and Gen. Benjamin Butler awaken President Lincoln late at night to inform him of the capture of Forts Hatteras and Clark, in North Carolina./1861
• In Richmond, Virginia, the Third Session of the Provisional Confederate Congress adjourns after approving the promotions of Samuel Cooper, Robert E. Lee, Albert Sidney Johnston, Joseph E. Johnston and P. G. T. Beauregard to full general in the Confederate Army./1861 
• The C.S.S. Teaser shells Union Camp Butler on Newport News Point, Virginia./1861 
• The USS George Peabody, commanded Lieutenant Lowry, captures the brig Henry C. Brooks in Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina. /1861 
• The USS Jamestown under Commander Green, captures the British blockade running schooner Aigburth off the Florida coast./1861

• A skirmish occurs at Munson's Hill, Virginia./1861

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• Why does no one remember Samuel Cooper? (michaelchardy.blogspot.com)
• Hatteras Expedition departs, CS win at Kessler's Cross Lanes (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)

Settlers declare Confederate Territory of Arizona

CS flag raised in Tucson, 3/28/1861

• • In Richmond, Virginia, President Jefferson Davis calls a Cabinet meeting to decide what should be done about the atrocities committed by northern generals against Southern prisoners and civilians. Cabinet unanimously says retaliation should be used only in extreme cases. Later, Davis urges General Joseph E. Johnston to take advantage of the weakness among Union forces following their defeat at Manassas. /1861
  • Meanwhile, General Robert E. Lee arrives in West Virginia to take command of Confederate forces following their defeat under General Garnett at Carrick’s Ford./1861 
• Image via WikipediaSettlers with Lt. Col. John Baylor of the 2nd Texas Mounted Rifles officially declare the Confederate Territory of Arizona following the Confederate victory at the Battle of Mesilla. It consists of the New Mexico Territory south of the 34th parallel north to the US border with Mexico, including parts of the modern states of New Mexico and Arizona. Its capital is Mesilla (now in Las Cruces, New Mexico) along the southern border. In July 1860, a constitutional convention at Tucson had established the territory, but recognition in Washington was blocked by anti-slavery Congressmen. Having seceded from the US in March 1861, the Arizona Territory now sends a petition to the Confederate States for recognition. In July 1862, the Confederate Arizona territorial government will relocate in exile to El Paso, Texas, after the Confederate defeat at the Battle of Glorieta Pass (New Mexico Campaign) and remain for the rest of the war. The territory will be represented in the Confederate Congress and Confederate troops will continue to fight under the Arizona banner until war's end./1861

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• First Battle of Mesilla, Arizona (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• West Texans capture Fort Fillmore, New Mexico (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• President Davis Mishandling Provisions?; Arizona (CSA) is Established (civilwardailygazette.com)
• Battle in New Mexico! Confederates Gather in Missouri (civilwardailygazette.com)
• A Fort About to Fall and a Bit of Mutiny (civilwardailygazette.com)
• 2nd Texas arrives at Mesilla; Wise evacuates Tyler Mountain (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• The Great Bloodless War in the East; Preparing for Blood in the West (civilwardailygazette.com)

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

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• 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 

Manassas: Johnston arrives to reinforce Beauregard

Johnston's army arrives at Manassas

• US Gen. Irvin McDowell reconnoiters Manassas, Virginia, and continues to probe Beauregard’s position ahead of an attack. Meanwhile, J.E. Johnston’s forces sneak away by train from Patterson in the Shenandoah Valley to join Beauregard at Manassas. /1861 

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Robert Toombs

• In Richmond, Virginia, Robert Toombs resigns as Confederate Secretary of State to lead a Georgia military brigade in Virginia. He had hoped to be the Confederate President and has become a vocal critic of the Confederate government especially since Jefferson Davis' decision to fire on Fort Sumter. /1861
• In Missouri, Union Brigadier General of Volunteers John Pope, a West Point graduate and veteran of the Mexican War, with a large frame, larger mouth, and even larger ego, announces that anyone taking up arms against the US government would be immediately and severely dealt with. Since half the state was pro-secession, his threat is little more than hot air./1861

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• July 9, 1861: Toombs prepares to resign as Confederate Secretary of State (civilwar-online.com)
• Feds try to stop Johnston's movement toward Manassas (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• May 22, 1861: Dissension in the Davis cabinet (civilwar-online.com)

Johnston to reinforce Beauregard at Manassas

Image via Wikipedia

Beauregard's HQ at Manassas

• Encamped at Manassas with 22,000 men, General P.G.T. Beauregard, nervous about being outnumbered, requests aid in stopping the Federal invasion of Virginia. In a bold move, President Jefferson Davis orders General Joseph E. Johnston by train to Manassas to reinforce Beauregard while US General Robert “Granny” Patterson (the man tasked with keeping Johnston occupied in western Virginia) retreats to Charleston, fighting a small engagement at Scary Creek, western Virginia. /1861

  Image via Wikipedia

  PGT Beauregard

• The US government at the direction of the Lincoln Administration, begins issuing paper currency demand notes commonly called "Greenbacks," in order to finance the war with artificial funds created out of thin air and backed by the supposed good name of the Federal government./1861

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• June 16, 1861: P.G.T. Beauregard to Jefferson Davis (civilwar-online.com)
• June 24, 1861: P.G.T. Beauregard to Joseph Johnston (civilwar-online.com)
• June 3, 1861: P.G.T. Beauregard writes to Jefferson Davis (civilwar-online.com)
• July 11, 1861: P.G.T. Beauregard to Jefferson Davis (civilwar-online.com)
• 10K Feds advancing in Virginia; Beauregard: "Answer me!" (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Patterson maneuvers in western Virginia (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Union Army Prepares to Move on Richmond! (civilwardailygazette.com)
• Feds try to stop Johnston's movement toward Manassas (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• The Union Advances Towards Manassas! Revenge on the High Seas! (civilwardailygazette.com)
• To Secure New Mexico for the CSA; Johnston and Beauregard Makes Some Plans (civilwardailygazette.com)
• Forward to Richmond! Or, How Over-Estimating is Under-Estimating (civilwardailygazette.com)

Union takes Martinsburg, (West) Virginia

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Gen. Robert Patterson

• US General Robert Patterson’s army marches to Martinsburg, (West) Virginia, forcing Confederate troops under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston to pull back./1861

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• Martinsburg burned; Skirmish at Cole Camp, Missouri (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Jackson completes Martinsburg destruction (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Jackson destroys Martinburg Shops (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Patterson Confused While Scott is Silent (civilwardailygazette.com)

Jackson completes Martinsburg destruction

• At Martinsburg, western Virginia, Colonel Thomas J. Jackson, against his personal feelings but obeying Joseph Johnston’s orders, completes the destruction of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Shops, roundhouses, 42 locomotives and at least 305 rail cars valued at over $400,000./1861
• At Falls Church, Virginia, Professor Thaddeus Sobieski Constantine Lowe, whose academic connections are unclear, today demonstrates the reconnaissance value of his hot air balloon by ascending with an artist to observe the encamped Confederate units nearby while the artist sketches the scene, providing an aerial image of the Southern position./1861

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• Martinsburg burned; Skirmish at Cole Camp, Missouri (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
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• Not the Worst Day for Ballooning (civilwardailygazette.com)

Jackson destroys Martinsburg Shops

"Jackson Commandeers the Railroad," June 20, 1861. Mort Kunstler

• After evacuating Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, Colonel Thomas J. Jackson falls back, arriving this afternoon at the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Shops at Martinsburg, Virginia, where “forty-two locomotives and their tenders at that important railroad center, in addition to 305 cars, chiefly coal gondolas are located. Pursuant to orders from Joseph E. Johnston, but against his better judgment that railroad equipment should always be saved, Jackson begins a systematic destruction of the Martinsburg yards. Details begin to rip up track and burn cross-ties. Other soldiers set fire to the round houses and machine shops. Locomotives and tenders, as well as at least 305 coal cars, are either set afire, heaved into the Opequon river, or dismantled to the point of uselessness over the next few days./1861

• At Wheeling, western Virginia, across the river from the state of Ohio, Unionist Virginians from the northwestern counties who are disloyal to their state come to an important point in the Second Wheeling Convention. Today the convention selects new officers of the “Restored government of Virginia.” Among them, delegates elect attorney and railroad magnate Francis H. Pierpont of Marion County as provisional governor of “Federal Virginia,” or what will be named West Virginia./1861
• General George B. McClellan assumes command in person of the US Army in western Virginia./1861 
• The governor of Kansas, Charles L. Robinson, today issues a proclamation forming a state militia to defend the new state against spill-over violence from Missouri. Kansas, with just over 100,000 residents statewide, would eventually send 20,000 to war. Robinson, a Republican, had already served prison time in Kansas for his subversive activities with the son of John Brown and his illegal election as territorial governor. Robinson remains the only Kansas governor who was impeached. /1861 
• Veteran naval officer George Nichols Hollins is commissioned a captain in the Confederate Navy. He will go to work in days and will eventually command the famous Mosquito Fleet at New Orleans./1861

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• Martinsburg burned; Skirmish at Cole Camp, Missouri (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
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Martinsburg burned; Skirmish at Cole Camp, Missouri

Martinsburg, (West) Virginia June 19-20, 1861

• While Gen. Joseph E. Johnston and Col. Thomas J. Jackson are on the road retreating from Harper’s Ferry toward Winchester, Virginia, Johnston is concerned that Union troops might be advancing toward Martinsburg, (West) Virginia, where Colonel J.E.B. Stuart is, twenty miles north of Winchester. Johnson orders Jackson to join Stuart and destroy the important Baltimore & Ohio railroad shops before they fall into Union hands./1861
• The Pro-Confederate Missouri State Guard defeats the pro-Union Missouri Home Guard in a battle at Cole Camp in Benton County, Missouri. The Confederate victory provides an open line of march for the fleeing Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson and the Missouri State Guard to get away from US Brig. Gen. Nathaniel Lyon's force in Boonville, Missouri./1861
• At the Second Wheeling Convention in western Virginia, delegates vote unanimously to follow US Constitutional restrictions for formation of new states and form a loyal government of Virginia which would permit creation of a new state./1861

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• 2nd Wheeling Convention opens; Lyon: "This means war" (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
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• Boonville, balloons, and bowie knives (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Skirmishes at Boonville, Pooleville and Vienna; Johnston to Attack! (civilwardailygazette.com)
• June 17, 1861: The battle of Boonville (gathkinsons.net)

Johnston evacuates Harper's Ferry

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J.E. Johnston

• Confederate troops retreating from Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, under command of Joseph E. Johnston, take with them the entire munitions manufacturing plant and move it to North Carolina where it will produce munitions for the Confederacy. Along with others which were captured and moved south, the use of the munitions production plants will force US Chief of Ordnance, General James Wolfe Ripley to place large orders for guns from private manufacturers, profiting small arms companies like Colt, Remington, and Winchester./1861
• The CSS Sumter under Raphael Semmes sails down the Mississippi River to await conditions to run the blockade./1861 

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• June 12, 1861: Joe Johnston writes to Robert E. Lee (civilwar-online.com)
• "Aren't you glad Harper's Ferry has been evacuated without bloodshed? - Woolsey family letters. Eliza Woolsey Howland to Joseph Hpwland (still in Albany.) (dotcw.com)
• April 22, 1861: Raphael Semmes takes command of CSS Sumter (civilwar-online.com)
• Harpers Ferry Burned and Evacuated! (civilwardailygazette.com)

Day of Prayer in Confederacy; Skirmish at Romney, Va.

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Pres. Davis

• Today is set aside by President Jefferson Davis as a special day of fasting and prayer in the Confederacy for the “Lord of Hosts to guide and direct our policy in the paths of right, duty, justice, and mercy; to unite our hearts, and our efforts for the defence of our dearest rights: to strengthen our weakness; crown our arms with success, and to enable us to secure a speedy, just, and honorable peace.”/1861 
• In a telegram from Adjutant General Samuel Cooper, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston in command at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, is authorized, if he feels the enemy “is about to turn [his] position”, to "destroy everything at Harper’s Ferry" and "retire upon the railroad towards Winchester." Meanwhile as George B. McClellan and Patterson advance from the west and north on the strategic town at the foot of the Shenandoah Valley, Johnston orders Colonel Thomas J. Jackson to abandon Harper's Ferry./1861
• US Brigadier General Lew Wallace, who had received his rank by raising a regiment, the 11^th Indiana, today marches his 500 men from Maryland to Romney, western Virginia, allegedly to protect pro-Union citizens from harassment. After a skirmish at Romney, Wallace retreats to Maryland. Wallace, like so many new paper generals in Lincoln’s Army, is a lawyer and politician who had served in the Mexican War but had no formal military training. He would after the War write the book, Ben Hur./1861
• In Washington, President Lincoln signs legislation forming the United States Sanitary Commission, a civilian organization whose aim is to provide care for the sick & wounded in the war, revolutionizing health care for the US military./1861

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John Carlile

• At the Second Wheeling (western Virginia) Convention, John Carlile introduces to the convention "A Declaration of the People of Virginia," calling for the reorganization of Virginia state government on the grounds that Virginia's secession had in effect vacated all offices of the existing government./1861

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Feds occupy Arlington, Ellsworth killed

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Marshall House Inn

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Col. Ellsworth killed

• 13,000 Federal troops quietly cross the Potomac River and occupy Arlington Heights and Alexandria, Virginia, ostensibly to defend Washington. A party from the USS Pawnee (which had been part of the Fox Expedition to Fort Sumter) demanded and received the surrender of Alexandria, Virginia. The Virginia Militia offers little resistance. U.S. Col. Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth (age 24) of the 11th New York Fire Zouaves is killed in the Marshall House Inn in Alexandria, Virginia, after he and his men attempt to remove a Confederate flag from the hotel roof. The hotel keeper, James Jackson, shoots Ellsworth who then in turn is shot by Union soldier Francis E. Brownell. Ellsworth is generally regarded as the first officer killed on duty in the War between the States, but both sides now have martyrs for their causes. Learning of Col. Ellsworth’s death through a War Dept. telegram, Lincoln weeps openly over death of his young friend. Later he and Mrs. Lincoln drive to the Washington Navy Yard to view his body./1861 
• Major General Joseph E. Johnston arrives at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, to take command of the Confederate Department of the Shenandoah. Up to this time Virginia Militia Colonel Thomas J. Jackson has been in command. The transition of power will take power on June 8./1861

• In Missouri, Sterling Price refuses to disband his troops./1861

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Cartoon about slaves at Fort Monroe

• US Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler holds three slaves at Fort Monroe, Virginia. He uses the term "contraband" to describe slaves who have crossed into the Northern camps and wants to use them for laborers himself. The issue of whether slaves can be classified contraband of war becomes increasingly controversial, and Secretary of War Simon Cameron will ultimately have to rule on it./1861

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• 11th New York Fire Zouaves arrive in Washington (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• May 9, 1861: Zouaves in Washington (gathkinsons.net)
• "Went into the East Capitol grounds where the Zuave Regt (Col Ellsworths) was on parade. They are a hard looking set (NY Fire man)." - Horatio Nelson Taft (dotcw.com)
• "I was at Willards tonight when the NY Zuaves Col Ellsworth Regt marched up the "Ave" to the War department...," - Horatio Nelson Taft (dotcw.com)
• Way Back Machine | The Zouaves Depart (cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com)
• The Fire Zouaves Arrive in Washington; Fort McHenry's No Good (civilwardailygazette.com)