Blockade runner caught off Charleston, SC

Image via Wikipedia

Brig. Gen. Roswell Ripley

• At Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate War Department assigns Brigadier General Roswell S. Ripley, an Ohio native who spent his childhood in New York, to command the Department of South Carolina and Brigadier General John B. Grayson to command the Department of Middle and East Florida./1861
• The Second Wheeling Convention adjourns./1861
• The USS Vandalia under Commander Samuel Phelps Lee captures the Confederate blockade runner Henry Middleton off Charleston, South Carolina, with a cargo of spirits, turpentine, and rosin./1861

Related articles

• July 28, 1861: The USS St. Lawrence sinks Confederate privateer Petrel (civilwar-online.com)

US Congress invests in ironclad technology as blockade tightens

• In Washington, the US Congress authorizes Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles to appoint a three-member board to plan and construct “iron or steel-clad steamships or steam batteries” and appropriates $1.5 million dollars for the purpose./1861
• US General Nathaniel Lyon skirmishes with Missouri State Guard troops at McCulla's Store, Missouri/1861 
• In Washington, Prince Napoleon (Napoleon Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte) of France, the nephew of the former French emperor and traveling in U.S. as private citizen, visits President Lincoln at noon. The Prince, arriving at the White House with Baron Mercier, found no one—neither butler nor doorman—at the main entrance to show him in, and an employee who happened to be passing by, took care of this duty. The meeting was "not so gay"; the Prince, huffed at his reception, "took a cruel pleasure in remaining silent." At 7 p.m., President Lincoln and his wife, Mary, host a state dinner for Prince Napoleon. He is seated at the right of Mrs. Lincoln and opposite General Winfield Scott, who is at the President's left. Gen. George B. McClellan is at the right of the Prince. The dinner turns out to be an unusually sociable and enjoyable affair./1861
• At Hampton Roads, Virginia, John LaMountain makes the first ascent in a balloon from Union ship Fanny to observe Confederate batteries on Sewell’s Point, Virginia—a harbinger of the twentieth century aircraft carrier./1861
• Off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina, the USS Wabash, commanded by Captain Mercer, recaptures the American schooner Mary Alice, which had been taken by Confederate ship Dixie, and also captures the blockade running brig Sarah Starr. /1861  
• At Galveston, Texas, the USS South Carolina under Commander Alden, engages Confederate batteries on the Galveston coast./1861

Related articles

• William Howard Russell's Diary: Prince Napoleon. - Mr. Brekinridge. (dotcw.com)
• A Peevish Prince, a Hairy-Handed President, a Disastrous Dinner Party (opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com)
• William Howard Russell's Diary: Reception at Mr. Seward's. - Prince Napoleon. (dotcw.com)
• August 9, 1861: Lyon maneuvers to strike Price (civilwar-online.com)
• McClellan made Army of Potomac commander (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• A Diary of American Events. - August 10, 1861 (dotcw.com)

Lee to command western Virginia; Petrel sinks

USS Lawrence sinks the Petrel off the SC coast

• West Texas troops under command of Lieutenant Colonel John R. Baylor, on their “buffalo hunt” to sweep out Union presence from the New Mexico Territory, take the fort at St. Augustine Springs without firing a shot./1861
• Confederate troops occupy New Madrid, Missouri, an important choke point on the Mississippi River./1861
• In another Confederate victory, US Maj. Gen. George McClellan is officially named to command the new Army of the Potomac./1861
• In an announcement at Richmond, General Robert E. Lee is assigned command of the western Virginia forces. He will arrive August 1. /1861 
• The schooner Petrel which slipped out of Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, the night of the 27th, bumps into the U.S.S. Lawrence at dawn. The Petrel runs but is chased down by 10am. As a matter of honor, the captain of the Petrel takes on the 52-gun frigate with her two guns. One shot from the Lawrence sinks her, and the Petrel’s crew surrenders--four drowned /1861 

Related articles

• July 8, 1861: "Running the Blockade" (civilwar-online.com)
• Confederate Invasion of New Mexico; Western Virginia Heats Up (civilwardailygazette.com)
• 2nd Texas arrives at Mesilla; Wise evacuates Tyler Mountain (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• More US military changes; West Texans head for New Mexico (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Lincoln Talks to the Troops; CSA Invades the North (Sort Of) (civilwardailygazette.com)

McClellan made Army of Potomac commander

Image via Wikipedia

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

Boonville, balloons, and bowie knives

Image via Wikipedia

Battle of Boonville, Missouri

• In Missouri, US Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon, after occupying the state capitol at Jefferson City without firing a shot, has pursued the Missouri State Guard and Governor Claiborne Jackson to Boonville, in Cooper County, Missouri. Against the advice of his senior officers including Gen. Marmaduke, Missouri Governor Claiborne Jackson exercises his authority as state commander-in-chief and orders the Missouri State Guard to make a stand at Boonville. In the Battle of Boonville, Missouri, Lyon's 1,400 volunteers and regular US Army troops rout the Missouri State Guard. Casualties are extremely light, but very strategic for the future of Missouri. Jackson, the State Guard, and pro-secessionist members of the General Assembly retreat to southwest Missouri, near the Arkansas border, leaving Lyon’s Federal army in control of the Missouri River, and thereby most of the north and east of the state, effectively thwarting efforts to bring Missouri officially into the Confederacy./1861 
• The Second Wheeling (Virginia) Convention unanimously declares western Virginia independent of the Confederate portion of the State./1861
• Spain proclaims neutrality in the War between the States, but recognizes the Confederacy as a belligerent power, a good diplomatic sign for the Confederacy./1861
• Skirmishing and probes continue along the Potomac River front at Conrad's Ferry, New Creek, and Vienna, Virginia. A train of cars with 275 Ohio volunteers is fired into near Vienna, Virginia, and 8 men are killed and 12 wounded. No one takes responsibility./1861



Prof. T.S.C. Lowe

Image via Wikipedia

Prof. Lowe in his balloon

• At Washington, President Lincoln observes Professor Thaddeus S.C. Lowe demonstrate the use of a hot-air balloon for reconnaissance operations and even communicate by telegraph from the air. Some military advisors want to employ balloons to observe enemy movements. The self-taught and self-named Professor Lowe, who looks remarkably like the man behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz, had been working on a transatlantic crossing in a balloon, but two test flights had failed. The first failed when the balloon sustained a tear. The second when he took off April 19, 1861, from Cincinnati headed to New York. Unfortunately he instead landed in Union, South Carolina, and was arrested as a Yankee spy. The South Carolina authorities released him when he proved his scientific interests only to them, but US Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase recognized the strategic value of the balloons and invited him to Washington for this demonstration for the President. In July 1861 Lowe would be appointed Chief Aeronaut of the Union Army Balloon Corps by President Abraham Lincoln./1861

Image via Wikipedia

Bowie knife

• According to the Richmond Daily Dispatch (June 20, 1861), in the early morning four New Orleans Zouaves leave camp at Bethel, Virginia, without leave for Newport News, allegedly to reconnoiter the area’s fortifications. Five or six hours later, only one of them returns to camp -- exhausted and carrying a large, bloody bowie knife. According to the lone Zouave, about 1 ½ miles from Newport News, they were surrounded by a 20-30 member Yankee scouting party. Armed with nothing but bowie knives, they determined to cut their way out and went to work with a will. Despite killing several of the Yankees, he alone escaped; the other three taken prisoners./1861

Related articles

• May 21, 1861: The Price-Harney Truce (gathkinsons.net)
• Capital moves to Richmond; Price-Harney Truce in St. Louis (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Merrimack raised; Lyon replaces Harney (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Thaddeus S. C. Lowe and the Steampunk Space Race (unsanityfiles.wordpress.com)
• Feds occupy Missouri capitol (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Missouri Gov. calls for 50K; Taney: "Let South go" (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• 2nd Wheeling Convention opens; Lyon: "This means war" (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Missouri Prepares for War; Western Virginia Prepares for Statehood (civilwardailygazette.com)
• June 12, 1861: Claiborne Fox Jackson's proclamation (gathkinsons.net)
• Western Virginians Meet to Form a New State; War Against Missouri (civilwardailygazette.com)
• June 14, 1861: Governor Jackson flees Jefferson City (gathkinsons.net)

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

Related articles

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

Beauregard takes command; Jackson burns B&O assets

T.J. Jackson

• Miscommunication and zeal lead the Confederate forces under Colonel Thomas J. Jackson in western Virginia to continue destroying Baltimore and Ohio Railroad assets. Major General Robert E. Lee had on May 6 ordered Jackson to destroy B&O railroad bridges to frustrate the Union advance on Harper's Ferry. After burning the B&O Railroad bridge over Opequon Creek two miles east of Martinsburg, western Virginia, Jackson’s men set fire to fifty coal cars and run them off the destroyed trestle, where they will burn for two months, the intense heat melting the axles and wheels. The fifty-two remaining locomotives and rail cars at the round house in Martinsburg are thereby left stranded, preventing their removal by rail to the south./1861



PGT Beauregard

• Gen. Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard takes command of the Confederate Army of the Potomac at the Alexandria Line, succeeding Milledge L. Bonham. The immediate concern is Col. R.F. Kelley in western Virginia who is moving US troops despite driving rain. Beauregard’s command would become known as the Army of Northern Virginia./1861
• The privateer Savannah leaves Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, to go hunting for Yankee trading vessels./1861 

Related articles

• Jackson seizes 100mi of B&O; Commons debates CSA recognition (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Jackson moves on B&O; Butler to Fortress Monroe (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Virginia secession ratified; Jackson bags B&O (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Beauregard to command Confederate army in Virginia (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Calls for "New Virginia", Jackson seizes train (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)

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

• 

  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)

Related articles

• State Capitol Commemorates 150th Anniversary of North Carolina 's Secession Vote
• NC elects convention; Unionist Virginians meet at Wheeling
• The Secession of North Carolina
• May 20, 1861: North Carolina secedes - but doesn't revolt
• North Carolina Secedes! Telegraph Offices Raided!
• Weekend Events Commemorate 150th Anniversary of North Carolina's Secession Vote
• Thoughts on Secession 

Blockade of Chesapeake Bay continues

• At Hampton Roads, Virginia, Confederate batteries on the promontory of Stevens Point near Suffolk shell the Union blockade ships. While the Union Navy vessels return fire, little damage is done on either side. Meanwhile at Norfolk, the USS Monticello fires on Sewall’s Point, Virginia, opposite Fortress Monroe, Virginia. By 5:00 p.m. the Confederates under command of Captain Peyton H. Colquitt of the Columbus Light Guard from Georgia install three 32-pound guns at the Sewell's Point battery. Captain Colquitt flies a Georgia state flag at the battery since he does not have a Confederate flag. When the Monticello begins to shell the Sewall's Point Battery around 5:30 p.m., Colquitt returns fire, driving off the Monticello. /1861

Georgia Militia Flag 1861-1879

Related articles

• Lee resigns, Norfolk Navy Yard burned (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• April 26, 1861: USS Cumberland captures schooner Cambridge (civilwar-online.com)
• May 12, 1861: USS Niagara seizes a prize off Charleston, South Carolina (civilwar-online.com)
• Capital District Civil War Series: The Battle of Hampton Roads (timesunion.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

Related articles

• Unionist Virginians meet, Kansas City ordnance seized (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Lee Makes Moves into Western Virginia (civilwardailygazette.com)
• Upper South in turmoil (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

Image via Wikipedia

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

  Image via Wikipedia

  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)

Washington's security worries Lincoln

Union soldiers at Relay House, Maryland 1861

• Security around Washington continues to be Lincoln’s greatest worry. With the railroad lines either in Confederate hands or in constant danger of partisan saboteurs, Northern troops are now arriving by ship. Today US Gen. Benjamin Butler improves the situation somewhat by capturing the Railroad Relay House in Maryland on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, securing the railroad from Washington through Annapolis to Baltimore./1861
• In violation of orders, 650 Virginia State Militia under command of Colonel Algernon Taylor, nephew of former President Zachary Taylor, abandons Alexandria, Virginia , directly across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. Brigadier-General Philip St. George Cocke, fearing invasion of Virginia from Washington by the Long Bridge, this morning writes to Col. Taylor commanding 650 Virginia militiamen who are mostly from the Alexandria area and poorly armed. He forbids Taylor’s abandonment of Alexandria unless “pressed by overwhelming and irresistible numbers,” and only in that last resort to “retire to Manassas Junction,” tearing up the rails along the way and “harassing the enemy should he attempt to use the road.” Cocke’s dispatch reaches Col. Taylor in the afternoon, but instead, fearful of Federal attack, he abandons Alexandria and falls back to Springfield, ten miles west, on the Orange & Alexandria Railroad. By 10pm, Alexandria is bereft of a single Virginia militiaman. Taylor doesn’t bother to communicate his withdrawal to Brig. Gen. Cocke. /1861 /1861
• A Baltimore committee meets with President Lincoln at the White House and urges the recognition of independence of the Southern States. Lincoln rebukes them for their lack of fighting spirit./1861

Related articles

• Torn Up Rails to Washington; "I Don't Believe There Is Any North" (civilwardailygazette.com)
• Lincoln suspends writ of habeas corpus (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Troops To Washington, Harpers Ferry; North Carolina Gets Up To Leave (civilwardailygazette.com)