Lincoln recognizes "Federal" Virginia

Wheeling Custom House; Independence Hall, 1861

• US forces invading western Virginia skirmish at Frankfort and Patterson’s Creek with Confederate forces involved in retreating from Harper’s Ferry./1861
• From Washington, President Lincoln unconstitutionally and illegally recognizes the Wheeling government of Federal Virginia, the western Virginia counties which voted to secede from their state. Lincoln is now meddling in local and state affairs yet refuses to recognize (except by invasion) the States which have seceded from the Federal Union./1861

Unionist East Tennesseans protest

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Senator Andrew Johnson

• A large group of East Tennesseans gather today in Greeneville, Tennessee, (Senator Andrew Johnson's hometown and the former capital of the State of Franklin) in support of the Union and to protest the state’s secession. East Tennessee would furnish more troops to the Federal army than to the Confederate cause./1861

Image by MaryLouiseEklund via Flickr

Capital of State of Franklin

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• East Tennessee largely opposed secession but lost the battle (knoxnews.com)
• Virginia admitted to Confederacy, Unionist riots in Knoxville, Tennessee (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• East Tennessee's Unruly Unionists (opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com)
• A city divided: Fort Sumter attack split Knoxville at start of Civil War (knoxnews.com)
• Tennessee, Arkansas both secede (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)

Missouri Gov. calls for 50K; Taney: "Let South go"

Jefferson City, Missouri, 1861

• At Jefferson City, the capital city of Missouri, Governor Claiborne Jackson puts out a call for 50,000 volunteers for the pro-Southern Missouri State Guard, to defend the state from the unlawful Federal takeover of the state’s cities and territory. Then he promptly begins preparations to evacuate the state government from Jefferson City and join the newly assembled State Guard troops near Boonville, Missouri./1861
• At the Second Wheeling Convention in western Virginia, the delegates pass a resolution thanking General McClellan, the Indiana and Ohio Militias, and the 1^st Virginia Infantry (US) commanded by Colonel R.F. Kelley for coming to northwest Virginia. In a statement revealing their rejection of republicanism for national centralization, the convention rebukes the common idea throughout the rest of Virginia that these military units are invading the state, “but on the contrary, we declare Virginia soil to be American soil, and free to the march of American soldiery and sojourn of American citizens, from all and every portion of American territory.”/1861

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SCOTUS Chief Justice Roger Taney

• In response to a letter from former US President and New Hampshire Democrat Franklin Pierce to Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, Roger Taney, Taney today thanks Pierce for his support of the Court’s decision in Ex Parte Merryman in which the Court declared Lincoln’s suspension of the writ of habeas corpus unconstitutional. Taney writes that in the case of John Merryman, his duty was clear and that he was forced to meet that duty “directly and firmly, without evasion” regardless of the consequences. Taney adds that he is concerned about the delirium into which the country seems to have been thrown and wishes that Lincoln would let the Southern states go their way and avoid a useless war. “I hope … that the North, as well as the South, will see that a peaceful separation, with free institutions in each section, is far better than the union of all the present states under a military government, and a reign of terror preceded too by a civil war with all its horrors, and which end as it may will prove ruinous to the victors as well as the vanquished. But at present I grieve to say passion and hate sweep everything before them.”/1861

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• SCOTUS: Suspension of habeas corpus unconstitutional (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Ellsworth funeral; Merryman arrested (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Merrimack raised; Lyon replaces Harney (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Capital moves to Richmond; Price-Harney Truce in St. Louis (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• April 17, 1861: Claiborne Fox Jackson of Missouri refuses troops (gathkinsons.net)

Tennessee people affirm secession > 2 to 1

• The people of Tennessee in public referendum affirm the “Declaration of Independence and Ordinance dissolving the federal relations between the State of Tennessee and the United States of America” by a statewide vote of 108,339 to 47,233. By this referendum, the voters of Tennessee formalize the legislature’s May decision to secede from the United States. The vote, like the one in the legislature on May 6, is largely along geographic lines. Middle and West Tennessee vote for secession while East Tennessee generally opposes it./1861
• All Virginia State Militia are transferred to the authority of the Confederate States Government today. As a consequence of losing a relatively small battle at Philippi, western Virginia Brig. Gen. Robert Edward Lee’s command is transferred to Confederate commander, Brig. Gen. Robert Seldon Garnett by Governor John Letcher, putting Lee out of command.   When Garnett dies in August, Lee will return to command as a Confederate Major General, but he will be unable to dislodge Union troops in western Virginia, and will again be replaced, to return to Richmond as a military advisor to President Davis. The counties of northwestern Virginia will remain under Union military control, encouraging loyal citizens in the area to form a new state./1861
• In a far-sighted move pointing toward a more centralized federal government under the Lincoln Administration, US Secretary of War Simon Cameron authorizes creation of the United States Sanitary Commission, a civilian group to maintain hospitals, hire and staff a nursing corps, gather donated supplies, and raise funds. A forerunner of a Department of Public Health, even before there was a medical department within the War Department other than battlefield surgeons, the Sanitary Commission would handle responsibilities of military sanitation, nutrition, disease, and care of the sick during the War. /1861

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• Confederates surprised at Phillippi (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• May 10, 1861: Lee placed in charge of Virginia (civilwar-online.com)

Virginia secession ratified; Jackson bags B&O

• The people of Virginia ratify their state’s Ordinance of Secession in referendum by a vote of 132,201 to 37,451 and officially join the Confederate States of America. The pro-Union western portion of Virginia, however votes against secession and contemplates a protest against Virginia’s secession from the Union by seceding from Virginia themselves. In Wheeling, the center of pro-Union sentiment, the 1st Virginia (U.S.) Volunteer Infantry Regiment is complete and Colonel Benjamin F. Kelley is commissioned the commander./1861 
• In western Virginia Colonel Thomas J. Jackson strikes the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad east of Harper’s Ferry, just at the end of busy noontime traffic as the trains fill both the east and west bound tracks. Jackson’s men block B&O’s system-wide rail transit, and capturing as many as 56 locomotives, bagging the largest single haul of rolling stock taken intact during the entire War./1861

• Joseph Eggleston Johnston is sent to take command of the Confederate Department of the Shenandoah headquartered at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, and former Virginia governor John Floyd is commissioned a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army./1861

Related articles

• May 10, 1861: Lee placed in charge of Virginia (civilwar-online.com)
• NC elects convention; Unionist Virginians meet at Wheeling (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Tennessee Goes With the CSA; Virginia Fires Her First Shots (civilwardailygazette.com)
• Upper South in turmoil (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• May 13, 1861: Western Virginia - Convention begins at Wheeling (gathkinsons.net)

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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• North Carolina Secedes! Telegraph Offices Raided!
• Weekend Events Commemorate 150th Anniversary of North Carolina's Secession Vote
• Thoughts on Secession 

Wheeling Convention closes; Lincoln: "Protect the gold"

• At the First Wheeling Convention in Wheeling, western Virginia, Unionist Virginians who are so much against Virginia’s secession that they wish to secede from their own state, agree on the third and last day of debate that the Convention should wait until after Virginia’s referendum on secession on May 23 before deciding how to move forward. The convention passes resolutions calling for the election of delegates to their own intrastate secession convention on June 4 and the convening of a Second Convention at Wheeling, Virginia, on June 11./1861
• One month after surrendering Fort Sumter, Robert Anderson is promoted to Brigadier General in the US Artillery./1861

USS Bainbridge off Cuba 1862

• Today the USS Bainbridge is ordered to the Atlantic coast of Panama to guard this major transshipment point for cargo from the American west coast--including the gold mines of California. Lincoln is concerned that California gold shipments would be very attractive to Southern privateers, since the Confederate government desperately needs gold to buy munitions abroad./1861

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• Unionist Virginians meet, Kansas City ordnance seized (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)

Queen Victoria grants Confederacy belligerent status

• In London, Queen Victoria announces Great Britain’s neutrality in regard to the warring States, stating that the British will not assist either side, but instead give each the rights accorded to belligerent powers. Gaining belligerent status is a very important diplomatic step forward for the Confederate States of America in getting international recognition as a nation. Under belligerent status, Britain will continue to trade with the Southern States. British ports around the globe will also be open to Confederate vessels to refit, repair, and refuel their ships, a major advantage, but will not be supplied with weapons – at least not officially. Her Majesty’s vessels also will continue to enter Southern ports, completely ignoring the Lincoln Naval Blockade, but will be prohibited from engaging in any military activities. Britain’s decision is a diplomatic failure and major irritation for the Lincoln Administration, denying the Administration’s demand that the Confederate armies be seen as rebels and war criminals trying to destroy their rightful government. Ironically, the U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain arrives in London today to speak with the Queen to ask specifically that the British government not to grant belligerent rights to the South. Victoria makes her announcement just hours before Adams' arrival./1861 

• The citizens of North Carolina, forced to reconsider secession from the Union because of Lincoln’s demand for a quota of troops to raise an army to invade his own country, elects delegates to the Secession Convention./1861

• What would become known as the First Wheeling Convention convenes with 436 elected delegates from 17 Virginia counties at Washington Hall in Wheeling, western Virginia. Several delegates had attended the General Assembly at Richmond. Fueled by a long list of grievances and many years of mostly failure to redress them, the Unionists of western Virginia meet as West Virginia's first official state body, although earlier organizational meetings had occurred shortly after Abraham Lincoln was elected President. Lincoln would quickly pledge his unconstitutional support to meddle in a sovereign state’s affairs to carve out a new Unionist state. The first day of the convention is mostly taken up with parliamentary actions./1861
• Major General of the Ohio Militia, George B. McClellan, is appointed as commander of the United States Department of Ohio which includes a portion of western Virginia./1861

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• Unionist Virginians meet, Kansas City ordnance seized (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
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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)

Unionist Virginians meet, Kansas City ordnance seized

Wheeling, western Virginia

• The people of western Virginia were not particularly in favor of Virginia’s secession. The mountainous region had social and cultural differences with the southern and eastern parts of the state. Virginians disloyal to their state meet today in the border areas with Pennsylvania and Ohio --  Wheeling, Kingwood, and Preston County to fight secession by seceding from Virginia./1861
• The Missouri Volunteer Militia seizes the United States ordnance stores at Kansas City, Missouri./1861

US troops evacuate Indian Territory

Fort Washita, Indian Territory

• Under orders from President Lincoln, US troops evacuate the forts in Indian Territory, leaving the Five Civilized Nations – Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles – virtually under Confederate jurisdiction and responsibility. US Col. William H. Emory evacuates Fort Wachita and marches to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas./1861

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Justice J.A. Campbell

• US Supreme Court Justice John Archibald Campbell of Georgia, who had acted as a mediator between the Confederate peace commissioners and Secretary of State William Seward and who had been a leader in the Washington Peace Conference, resigns today from the U.S. Supreme Court to serve as Assistant Secretary of War for the Confederacy./1861 
• The Tennessee State Legislature convenes in secret session in Nashville. Rumors say they have adopted a secession ordinance, which they will announce after an attack on Washington that is expected to take place on May 4./1861
• Confederate diplomats Pierre Rost and William Lowndes Yancey arrive in London, joining Ambrose Dudley Mann who arrived April 15th. Immediately they begin meeting with those in the British Government who are sympathetic to the South./1861 
  
•  The New York City Yacht Club votes to volunteer its vessels to the Federal Navy if needed to put down the insurrection in the South./1861

Maryland rejects secession

Maryland State House

• In a dramatic moment in Annapolis, the Maryland House of Delegates votes on whether to call a secession convention. If approved, the District of Columbia would be left as an island surrounded by seceded states, Virginia to the south, Maryland to the other three points of the compass, and the Federal capitol would be forced to relocate north, possibly New York or Philadelphia. At the end of debate, the House of Delegates votes 53-13 to reject a secession convention, dashing the hopes of a sizable pro-secession group in Maryland, but the secession movement in Maryland, especially on the Eastern Shore, continues to be strong./1861
• The Second Session of the Provisional Confederate Congress convenes in Montgomery, Alabama, and President Jefferson Davis announces that all the seceded states have ratified the Provisional Constitution. Davis also explains the reasons for secession, saying, “We protest solemnly in the face of mankind that we desire peace at any sacrifice save that of honor and independence.”/1861

Related articles

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Lincoln suspends writ of habeas corpus

Page 1 of Lincoln Proclamation 94 suspending writ

• After Vice President Alexander Stephens' speech to the Virginia Convention yesterday, Virginia today issues a formal invitation to the Confederate Government to make its capital at Richmond and move it from Montgomery, Alabama./1861 
• Thomas J. Jackson and the Virginia Military Institute cadets had reported to Richmond for duty. Jackson had been given a desk job, Major of Engineers, but today Major General Robert E. Lee of the Virginia Militia reassigns him to command Confederate forces at Harper’s Ferry and the lower Shenandoah Valley./1861

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Page 2 of Proclamation 94: Suspension of writ

• In a bold offense to inalienable human rights and affront to the Constitution, President Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus in an area stretching from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Washington, D.C., to protect troops from pro-Confederate mobs.   This suspension will continue until after the war even though a Supreme Court case rules against it on May 27.  He assigns General Winfield Scott to supervise incidents arising from the suspension. This area has had much secessionist turmoil centered in Baltimore, Maryland, and has caused severe disruption of troops moving into Washington./1861
• In addition, Lincoln extends the naval blockade to the ports of Virginia and North Carolina./1861 
• With the need to establish the national allegiance of all members of the US Army in light of the numbers of resignations by Southern officers, all United States Army officers are required to take the oath of allegiance to the United States. Lincoln also makes several department appointments in the Army: Brig, Gen. Benjamin Franklin Butler, Massachusetts militia, is assigned to the command of the Department of Annapolis, Maryland. US Col. Joseph K. F. Mansfield, is assigned to command the Department of Washington, D.C., and Maj. Gen. Robert Patterson, to the Department of Pennsylvania. For fear of the secession of Maryland, the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md., is ordered to be removed to Fort Adams, Rhode Island./1861

Related articles

• Lee offered US Army command, VA militia takes Harper's Ferry
• Virginia secedes
• Lincoln Suspends Writ of Habeas Corpus; Jackson to the Valley (civilwardailygazette.com)
• April 25, 1861: Lincoln writes to Winfield Scott - let the Maryland legislature meet (civilwar-online.com)
• Lincoln nervous, Lee takes Virginia command (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• ... and as for Marylanders and 1861... (cenantua.wordpress.com)

Virginia secedes

28th Virginia flag

• Less than two weeks ago Virginia voted down secession. But now everything has changed with Lincoln inaugurating war on the South and his call for troop quotas of militias from each state in the Union to supply a total of 75,000 volunteers to subdue the insurrection he has declared. Virginia Governor John Letcher rejects Lincoln’s requisition of troops to quell rebellion, and the Virginia Secession Convention meeting at Richmond approves on a first vote of 88-55 the wording of an ordinance of secession to be approved by statewide referendum on May 23. A second vote to ratify the Provisional Confederate Constitution was 103-46 in favor of joining the Confederacy, becoming the eighth state to secede and join the Southern Confederacy. For all intents and purposes, most view Virginia as a seceded state though several formalities must be completed. “AN ORDINANCE to repeal the ratification of the Constitution of the United States of America by the State of Virginia, and to resume all the rights and powers granted under said Constitution.
  
  The people of Virginia in their ratification of the Constitution of the United States of America, adopted by them in convention on the twenty-fifth day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, having declared that the powers granted under said Constitution were derived from the people of the United States and might be resumed whensoever the same should be perverted to their injury and oppression, and the Federal Government having perverted said powers not only to the injury of the people of Virginia, but to the oppression of the Southern slave-holding States:
  
  Now, therefore, we, the people of Virginia, do declare and ordain, That the ordinance adopted by the people of this State in convention on the twenty-fifth day of June, 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 all acts of the General Assembly of this State ratifying and adopting amendments to said Constitution, are hereby repealed and abrogated; that the union between the State of Virginia and the other States under the Constitution aforesaid is hereby dissolved, and that the State of Virginia is in the full possession and exercise of all the rights of sovereignty which belong and appertain to a free and independent State.
  
  And they do further declare, That said Constitution of the United States of America is no longer binding on any of the citizens of this State.
  
  This ordinance shall take effect and be an act of this day, when ratified by a majority of the voters of the people of this State cast at a poll to be taken thereon on the fourth Thursday in May next, in pursuance of a schedule hereafter to be enacted.
  
  Adopted by the convention of Virginia April 17,1861./1861

• By 2 o'clock in the morning of April 17, US Colonel Harvey Brown begins a second reinforcement of Fort Pickens at Pensacola Bay, Florida. Throughout the day, troops, supplies, and horses transfer from ships to the fort. The powerful war steamer Powhatan also arrives in the early morning despite being delayed by "heavy gales, head winds, and defective boilers." US Lieutenant David Dixon Porter decides to "run the gantlet" into Pensacola Harbor disguised as an English steamer and flying British colors.  Colonel Brown, recognizing the Powhatan, sends Meigs to stop Porter from barreling into the Harbor inviting attack from Confederate guns, and interfering with the fort’s reinforcement, putting the Union command in danger of an unwanted battle. Porter recklessly ignores signals obviously intended for him, forcing Meigs to put a ship directly in Porter's path to block his entry into Pensacola Harbor. Meigs forces the Powhatan to drop anchor near the Atlantic. A few days later, Porter sends a letter to Washington protesting that Meigs had prevented him from carrying out his orders. He addresses the letter, not to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, but to Secretary of State William Seward, requesting him to give the information to President Lincoln. In spite of Porter’s loose cannon antics, Fort Pickens will have a garrison of around 1100 soldiers and laborers and six months’ provisions after all the ships of the expedition arrive./1861

• In Baltimore, Maryland, secessionists convene a meeting to push for Maryland to secede from the Union. Lincoln is terrified of the prospect of District of Columbia being surrounded by seceded states./1861
• Militia aboard the Confederate Army steamer General Rusk off the coast of Texas take the Star of the West, famous for being fired on in a relief expedition sent by President Buchanan./1861
• In Montgomery, Alabama, anticipating a Union naval blockade and without a viable Navy, Confederate President Jefferson Davis responds to Lincoln’s call for 75,000 troops by issuing a proclamation calling for all owners of sea-going vessels to volunteer them for use in defending the Confederate States against "aggression" from the United States. He also announces that the Confederate government will accept applications for letters of marquee and reprisal, which are authorizations to fit out an armed ship and use it to attack, capture, and plunder enemy merchant ships in time of war, a policy known as privateering./1861
• In response to Lincoln’s call for militia, Pennsylvania sends five companies. Known as the “First Defenders” the men depart from Philadelphia to Washington, which requires them to pass through Baltimore where pro-secession flags fly on several buildings on Federal Hill in Baltimore. The men, unarmed, untrained and unprepared, received dirty looks, scowls and a few rude remarks./1861

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• Tying Up Loose Ends with the Powhatan, Lincoln, Seward and Welles (civilwardailygazette.com)
• Lincoln's confusion, bungling, and lies (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)