Davis appoints diplomats; Lincoln: 'Ky. camp stays'

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Gov. Beriah Magoffin

• In Richmond, President Jefferson Davis appoints three new special commissioners to Europe: James M. Mason to Great Britain, John Slidell to France, and Pierre Rost to Spain./1861

  
  

  
  

   
• In Washington, President Lincoln writes Kentucky Governor Beriah Magoffin that the organized Union force encamped in his state will not be removed. Violating Kentucky’s state neutrality is not his concern./1861

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• State of Kanawha proposed; Davis appoints 3 new diplomats (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• June 9, 1861: Kentucky's neutrality (gathkinsons.net)
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• August 8, 1861: Jefferson Davis on "Alien Enemies" (gathkinsons.net)

Confederate Army of New Mexico on march

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USS Lexington

• Brig. Gen. Henry H. Sibley and 3,700 men named the "Confederate Army of New Mexico" depart San Antonio, Texas, for New Mexico Territory. /1861 
•  US Naval Commander J. Rodgers reports that 600 Confederate troops at Commerce, Missouri, have withdrawn at the approach of Union gunboats, preventing the Confederates from erecting batteries there which would have effectively impeded navigation./1861
• The USS Lexington under Commander Stembel seizes the steamer W.B. Terry at Paducah, Kentucky, for trading with Confederates. Meanwhile, Confederate sympathizes seize the steamer Samuel Orr at Paducah, Kentucky, and take her up the Tennessee River. /1861

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Martial law declared in St. Louis

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The odd bird John Fremont

• US General John Fremont declares martial law in St. Louis, Missouri. Fremont also orders two newspapers closed for allegedly pro-Southern editorials./1861
• In Richmond, Jefferson Davis orders the banishment of all foreign nationals whose home countries did not recognize the Confederate government./1861
• In Washington, President Lincoln decides to violate further Kentucky’s neutrality and Tennessee’s sovereignty and send assistance to Union men in Kentucky and Tennessee. He selects Brig. Gen. Robert Anderson, a Kentuckian, to command three brigades, and consults again with Tennessee Senator Andrew Johnson and Congressman Maynard. /1861

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• US War Dept. to recruit in Tennessee, Kentucky (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• August 8, 1861: Jefferson Davis on "Alien Enemies" (gathkinsons.net)
• Tennessee people affirm secession > 2 to 1 (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• A Diary of American Events - May 27, 1861 (dotcw.com)
• A Diary of American Events. - August 14, 1861 (dotcw.com)
• Confederate Navy contracts British shipbuilders (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)

Confederate Navy contracts British shipbuilders

Cmdr. James D. Bulloch, CSN

• Confederate Naval Commander and Secret Service Agent James Dunwoody Bulloch writes from Liverpool in the United Kingdom to Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory: “After careful examination of the shipping lists of England, and inspecting many vessels, I failed to find a single wooden steamer fit for war purposes, except one paddle steamer, too large and costly for our coast. Wood as a material for ships has almost entirely gone out of use in the British merchant service, and their iron ships, though fast, well built, and staunch enough for voyages of traffic, are too thin in the plates and light in the deck frames and stanchions to carry guns of much weight. I therefore made arrangements to contract with two eminent builders for a gun vessel each . . .” Bulloch has signed his first contract with Fawcett & Preston Engineers in Liverpool and WC Miller and Son Ship Builders to build the CSS Florida, which would be finished by years’ end. He has signed the second contract in July 1861 with John Laird Sons and Company who has a shipyard near Liverpool to build the Enrica, the alias for the famous Confederate raider, the CSS Alabama. To be commanded by Admiral Raphael Semmes beginning one year from today, the CSS Alabama would range the globe for two years destroying Union merchant ships – 55 in all valued at US$4.5 million, plus ten others bonded at an additional US$562,000. In addition, Semmes would capture over 2,000 prisoners, not one harmed but deposited at the nearest port, all this without losing a single man./1861
• In Washington, Gen. Robert Anderson, the Kentucky native who had commanded the US forces inside Fort Sumter back in April, dines with the President and is informed of his appointment on completion of his convalescence to a command in Kentucky, violating the state’s neutrality. Gen. George B. McClellan also spends most of the evening at White House. /1861
• The USS Powhatan, commanded by Lieutenant David D. Porter, recaptures the schooner Abby Bradford off the mouth of the Mississippi River./1861

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• May 30, 1861: USS Powhatan seizes a prize off New Orleans (civilwar-online.com)
• July 13, 1861: CSS Patrick Henry ordered to sea (civilwar-online.com)
• Confederates routed at Rich Mountain (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• July 8, 1861: "Running the Blockade" (civilwar-online.com)
• May 29, 1861: The blockade of New Orleans begins (civilwar-online.com)
• Confederates surprised at Phillippi (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Merrimack to become ironclad (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)

Davis calls for 400,000 volunteers to defend the South

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• In Richmond, President Jefferson Davis calls for 400,000 volunteers to defend their homes in the Confederacy./1861
• At Washington, US Secretary of War Simon Cameron replies to another of General Benjamin Butler’s queries about making runaway slaves contraband. Cameron tells Butler that Union troops must adhere to fugitive slave laws, but only within Union territory. All states in insurrection are exempt from the protection and escaped slaves in those areas will not be returned to their owners but become property of the US government./1861
• In the Gulf of Mexico, the USS Santee, commanded by Captain Eagle, captures the blockade runner schooner C.P. Knapp./1861
• Brig. Gen. U. S. Grant assumes command of the district of Ironton, Missouri./1861
• At a public dinner and serenade in Baltimore, Maryland, in honor of John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky, his attempt to address the people is prevented by the rioting of Unionists./1861

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• Butler: "Make the runaways contraband" (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Escaped Slaves are Not Free; Gathering Rebels in Missouri (civilwardailygazette.com)
• August 8, 1861: Jefferson Davis on "Alien Enemies" (gathkinsons.net)
• August 6, 1861: Lincoln signs the Confiscation Act of 1861 (civilwar-online.com)
• Lincoln, Congress make runaway slaves US property (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)

Lincoln, Congress make runaway slaves US property

• In Washington, the US Congress, now in lock-step with the dictates of the Lincoln Administration, and trying to finish its legislative agenda for an August recess, gets a flurry of new bills done. President Lincoln and Cabinet members gather at the Capitol to approve and sign those bills. The U.S. Congress approves the Confiscation Act of 1861, permitting seizure of property, including slaves, used to support the rebellion. The act permits the confiscation of any property that had been allowed by the owner to be used by the Confederates against the United States. The act strips their slave owners of any claim to them but does not clarify whether the slaves are free. Because of this uncertainty, slaves who flee to U.S. forces become the property of the U.S. government. Lincoln hesitates before signing the bill. He also signs a law giving freedom to slaves employed by Confederates in carrying on war and approves an act authorizing a penalty for recruiting soldiers or sailors, and for enlisting, against U.S. Congress also passes and Lincoln signs an Army bill establishing the pay of private soldiers with an amendment legalizing the proclamations and orders of President since his inauguration. The Congress then adjourns its special session./1861

• In a show of Federal force disregarding Kentucky’s sovereignty, the US War Department establishes a military camp near Lexington, Kentucky, violating Kentucky’s declared neutrality./1861

Lincoln ignores Greeley on peace; violates Kentucky sovereignty again

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Horace Greeley

• At Washington, President Lincoln receives the first of a series of letters from newspaper editor (and liberal Republican) Horace Greeley advocating a negotiated peace. 
• Later today, Lincoln asks the Kentucky delegation in Congress if they will consent to "my friend Jesse Bayles" raising "a Kentucky Regiment" in blatant violation of Kentucky’s neutrality./1861

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• US War Dept. to recruit in Tennessee, Kentucky (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Kentucky's neutrality; McClellan slowed by terrain (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• May 17, 1861: Kentucky won't secede (gathkinsons.net)

McClellan made Army of Potomac commander

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George B. McClellan

• At Washington, Lincoln officially turns over command of the Federal Division of the Potomac to George B. McClellan, replacing Irvin McDowell, who was routed by Confederates at Manassas almost a week ago. Lincoln summons McClellan to a Cabinet meeting without inviting General of the Army, Winfield Scott. Learning of it, Scott keeps McClellan in a meeting with him until the Cabinet meeting is over. When Gen. McClellan is able to explain his absence to Lincoln, the President is amused. Lincoln wants his new general to seize Manassas Junction and Strasburg, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley, and push toward Tennessee, attacking Memphis on the Mississippi River from Cairo, Illinois, and east Tennessee from Cincinnati, Ohio. Never mind that neutral Kentucky is in the way. Apparently desperate for a good general anywhere he could get one, Lincoln also offers a commission in the US Army to Giuseppe Garibaldi, liberator of Italy. /1861 
• The Confederate privateer Petrel slips out of Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, during the night to do damage to Yankee trading vessels. /1861
• At Mathias Point, Virginia, Confederate forces repel a Federal attempt to land a force./1861

Kentucky's neutrality; McClellan slowed by terrain

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S.B. Buckner

• At the same time that he has ordered the War Department to recruit Union troops in neutral Kentucky, President Lincoln tells the Inspector General of Kentucky State Militia, Simon Bolivar Buckner saying that Union troops will not enter the state because it is neutral. But he couldn't promise it would always be that way./1861
• In Indian Territory, the Confederate government represented by Special Commissioner Albert Pike concludes a treaty of mutual aid with the Creek Indians./1861

• Major General George B. McClellan in West Virginia sends four US infantry regiments and a cavalry unit under General William S. Rosecrans toward Confederates at Rich Mountain at the same time ordering General T.A. Morris toward Confederate troops under Gen. Robert Sheldon Garnett at Laurel Hill, Virginia. However, the attack is slowed by terrain and unfamiliar roads, delaying a battle another day./1861

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• McClellan invades western Virginia; Mobile, New Orleans blockaded (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
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US War Dept. to recruit in Tennessee, Kentucky

• In order to fill Lincoln’s call for Federal troops to invade the South, the US War Department orders Kentucky and Tennessee canvassed for volunteers despite the fact that Tennessee seceded and joined the Confederacy May 6 and it was confirmed 2:1 in a statewide referendum June 8. Lincoln’s War Department also ignores Kentucky’s declared neutrality. The brazen illegalities of the Lincoln Administration continue to multiply./1861 

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  Lyman Trumbull

  Lyman Trumbull meets with President Lincoln for about an hour in the evening, and the two men discuss the war: "He said to me that he did not know of any law to authorize some things which he had done; but he thought there was a necessity for them, & that to save the constitution & the laws generally, it might be better to do some illegal acts, rather than suffer all to be overthrown. He seemed to think there was just as much law for increasing the regular army & the Navy as for calling out the three years' men. Every body seems anxious for a forward movement, & indications are not wanting that it will soon be made."/1861
• Federals occupy Hampton, Virginia./1861

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• Tennessee, Arkansas both secede (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Tennessee people affirm secession > 2 to 1 (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
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Confederates surprised at Philippi, Virginia

• CONFEDERATE MEMORIAL DAY in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Louisiana. (Jefferson Davis birthday, 1808).
• The Democrats and the Union lose a strong supporter when Stephen F. Douglas dies unexpectedly at age 48 in Chicago, Illinois,, complications following rheumatic fever or typhoid. In Washington, President Lincoln mourns the “Little Giant” of the famous Lincoln-Douglas Debates who had defeated the President in the 1858 US Senate race in Illinois but who lost to Lincoln in the 1860 Presidential election./1861



Battle of Philippi, western Virginia

• Union troops under Colonel R.F. Kelley march out of the mountains through the night in driving rain and this morning surprise Confederate forces under Colonel G.A. Porterfield, at Philippi, western Virginia, and the raw Confederates retreat rapidly under fire. The Confederate troops flee the field so quickly that the Northerners call their triumph the “Philippi Races.” Only a skirmish with about 3000 Union soldiers routing roughly 800 Confederate soldiers, no one is killed in this first land engagement of the war. It helps propel the Union commander - General George B. McClellan to fame. The Confederate defeat also has a bearing on western Virginia’s secession from the Old Dominion as the absence of Confederate troops in the area encourages pro-Union Virginians in the west to declare their support for the North./1861 
• In Washington, Lincoln, continuing under the paranoia of an imminent invasion of the District of Columbia by the demon Southerners, writes commander of the Army Winfield Scott, "I have accounts from different sources, tending to some expectation of an attack being made upon our forces across the Potomac to-morrow morning. I think it prudent to say this to you, although it is highly probable you are better informed than I am[.]"/1861



CSS Savannah flying both US and CS flags

• The privateer Savannah, which left port in Charleston, South Carolina, only yesterday, overhauls the brig Joseph and sends her into Georgetown, SC. In the afternoon the brig U.S.S. Perry attacks and captures the privateer Savannah. Her cruise is ended and her crew is arrested and taken to New York./1861 
• Confederate Secretary of War Stephen F. Mallory instructs Lieutenant John Mercer Brooke to develop an ironclad design for construction in the South./1861
• Against its will but forced by Governor Henry M. Rector, the Arkansas Secession Convention finally adjourns, but political turmoil will continue in Confederate Arkansas. General William J. Hardee will be assigned to command Confederate forces in Arkansas, but many soldiers will not want to join the regular army and risk being moved away from their home state. A lack of organization and cohesive command will plague Arkansas for the remainder of 1861./1861

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• Calls for "New Virginia", Jackson seizes train (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Tennessee, Arkansas both secede (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
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• The Day Before the Attack on Philippi (civilwardailygazette.com)

Jackson seizes 100mi of B&O; Commons debates CSA recognition

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B&O Railroad 1860 Map

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B&O double tracks in West Virginia today

• Confederate troops under Virginia Militia Colonel Thomas J. Jackson seize nearly 100 miles of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad from Point of Rocks, Maryland, where the line crosses the Potomac into western Virginia to its re-crossing of the Potomac at Cumberland, Maryland./1861
• The USS Union begins the blockade of Savannah, Georgia./1861

• US Brig. Gen. Robert Anderson assumes command of the Department of Kentucky while Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell assumes command of the Department of Northeastern Virginia./1861
• In the United Kingdom, the House of Commons takes up debate on recognition of the Confederate States of America./1861 
• Brig. Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard receives instructions to report to President Jefferson Davis at Richmond, Virginia, the new capital of the Confederacy./1861 

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• Calls for "New Virginia", Jackson seizes train (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Jackson moves on B&O; Butler to Fortress Monroe (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
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North Carolina secedes

NC State Flag of 22d NCV

• In Raleigh, North Carolina, delegates to a State Secession Convention convene at 11AM in the southern wing of the State Capitol on the anniversary of the 1775 Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. The Lincoln regime has already committed an act of war against the state by blockading its coast. Little was left to discuss. Debate ends at 6 o'clock p.m. when the convention adopts an Ordinance of Secession by unanimous vote, becoming the eleventh state to leave the Union. The ordinance reads in part, “"We do further declare and ordain, That the union now subsisting between the State of North Carolina and the other States under the title of the United States of America, is hereby dissolved, and that the State of North Carolina is in the full possession and exercise of all those rights of sovereignty which belong and appertain to a free and independent State.” Immediately after passage of the Ordinance, Major Graham Davee, private secretary to Governor Ellis, opens a window on the west side of the Capitol and announces North Carolina’s secession to Ellis Artillery Captain Stephen Dodson Ramseur. One hundred guns salute the resumption of North Carolina’s independence followed by a ten gun salute to the other independent States. Shortly thereafter the convention adopts the Confederate Constitution followed by a twenty-gun salute. /1861

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  NC State Capitol in 1861

  Governor Magoffin proclaims Kentucky's neutrality in the coming War./1861 

• In blatant violation of ethical, moral, and Constitutional law, all United States Marshals in the Northern states at the pre-arranged time of mid-afternoon visit every local telegraph office in the Union and confiscate every single telegram which had been sent in the past year. The Lincoln Administration is now openly spying on its own U.S. citizens, looking for pro-secessionist evidence or indications, Confederate spies, or suspicious patterns of messages, and making lists of suspects./1861

1861 NC Oath of Allegiance (Larger: Click image)

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• NC elects convention; Unionist Virginians meet at Wheeling
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• North Carolina Secedes! Telegraph Offices Raided!
• Weekend Events Commemorate 150th Anniversary of North Carolina's Secession Vote
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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

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Calls for "New Virginia", Jackson seizes train

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John S. Carlile

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Site of the Wheeling Convention

• At the First Wheeling Convention of Unionist Virginians seeking to form their own state in Wheeling, western Virginia, a heated debate arises between the two major factions of the Convention. One wants immediate separation from Virginia while the other advocates a structured separation. John S. Carlile of Harrison County insists that the convention has the authority to take action on separation. Delegates form a Committee on Credentials and a Committee on State and Federal Relations. Calling for a state of “New Virginia,” Carlile argues that Virginia must consent to the separation before it secedes from the Union. He feels that this is the only way to comply with Section Three of Article Four of the U.S. Constitution outlining the procedure by which one state is created from another. The Committee on State and Federal Relations recommends that a new state not be formed at this time and advises waiting for the results of the May 23 referendum. By this time, the Virginia Secession Convention has voted to secede, but still to come on May 23 is the referendum in which the people of Virginia will vote to ratify the Virginia Ordinance of Secession./1861 

• At the mouth of the Potomac River, the Aquia Creek Battery is spotted by the blockading ship, USS Mount Vernon, but the vessel does not fire on the Virginia Militia who are in the process of adding a second battery aback the bluffs south of the confluence of the Aquia Creek with the Potomac River./1861

• US Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler seizes a vessel at Baltimore, Maryland, loaded with arms for the Confederate States and a large number of guns. Butler imprisons Ross Winans, of Baltimore, at Fort McHenry./1861
• Major Robert Anderson receives word from President Lincoln that despite Kentucky’s neutrality, the Federal government will violate it to provide aid to Kentucky Unionists./1861
• William Tecumseh Sherman reenlists in the US Army and is commissioned commander of the 13th Regular Infantry because of the influence of Ohio Senator John Sherman. After graduating from West Point, Sherman had left the Army for better pay to head the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning and Military Institute at Pineville (later Louisiana State University). He resigned in January 1861 to avoid surrendering the Federal Arsenal at Baton Rouge./1861
• US Commander of the Department of Ohio, George B. McClellan, is promoted to major general in the US Army, his same rank in the Ohio militia. Only General-in-Chief Winfield Scott holds a higher rank./1861
• Colonel Thomas J. Jackson directs the seizure of a train at Harpers Ferry, western Virginia. Meanwhile, Colonel George Porterfield arrives in Grafton, western Virginia to recruit and take charge of Confederate troops. After not finding any Confederates in this pro-Union town he goes to Fetterman, western Virginia, and finds Captain W. P. Thompson with his Company of Marion Guards./1861

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