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

Related articles

• 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)

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

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

Related articles

• Tennessee, Arkansas both secede (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Tennessee people affirm secession > 2 to 1 (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Tennessee admitted; Kentucky proposes neutrality (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)

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

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Capital of State of Franklin

Related articles

• 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)

Jackson disrupts B&O main line; Missouri Gov. evacuates capital

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Harper's Ferry bridge during the War

• In following orders to abandon Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, and avoid being cut off by McClellan and Patterson advancing from the west and north, Colonel Thomas J. Jackson destroys the 800-foot combined highway-railroad bridge there, effectively closing the main line of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad for nearly ten months./1861
• Tennessee native Nathan Bedford Forrest enlists in the Confederate army as a private today in Josiah White’s cavalry company/1861
• Missouri Governor Claiborne F. Jackson completes a full-scale evacuation of the state government from Jefferson City as US forces under Brig. Gen. Nathaniel Lyon advance on the city./1861

Related articles

• April 17, 1861: Claiborne Fox Jackson of Missouri refuses troops (gathkinsons.net)
• June 8, 1861: Lyon gives Jackson and Price safe passage (gathkinsons.net)
• 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)

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

Related articles

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

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)

Merrimack raised; Lyon replaces Harney

• At the mouth of Aquia Creek on the Chesapeake Bay, the USS Freeborn returns with the USS Anacostia and USS Resolute and engage the Virginia Militia batteries for several hours for a second day with little effect./1861
• At a convention in Knoxville, Tennessee, a group of Unionists denounce Tennessee's secession./1861
• Colonel Benjamin F. Kelley with the 1^st Virginia (US) Infantry and units which would become the 2^nd West Virginia Infantry occupies the town of Grafton, in western Virginia, in order to protect the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad line./1861
• Confederates raise the scuttled U.S.S. Merrimack from the Elizabeth River at Norfolk, Virginia, and move it to Gosport's Dry Dock #1./1861

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Gen. Nathaniel Lyon

• At St. Louis, Missouri, US Brigadier General William S Harney is relieved of command of the Department of the West, including Missouri, by Congressman/Colonel Francis P. Blair, Jr. President Lincoln had previously granted authority for Blair to order at his discretion Harney’s removal because of the events surrounding the St. Louis Massacre on May 10-12 and the truce which gave the Missouri State Guard under Sterling Price control of the state leaving only St. Louis under Federal control. Nathaniel Lyon, whose arrogance and insubordination to Harney caused the St. Louis Massacre, is promoted to Brigadier General of Volunteers and assigned command of all the Union forces in Missouri. That is how things roll in the Lincoln Administration./1861
• United States Secretary of War Simon Cameron today sends orders to Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler in Maryland confirming what Butler has already been doing without permission – classifying Negro slaves under his jurisdiction as “contraband of war” and putting them to work as laborers for the Union army, virtually re-enslaving them. The question has caused a flurry of correspondence, debate and controversy in Washington, with everyone including Lincoln debating the subject./1861.
• President Lincoln asks Atty. Gen. Bates to present an argument to the Supreme Court on behalf of the Administration for the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus in the case of Ex parte Merryman. John Merryman is being held at Fort McHenry, Baltimore, Maryland, for treason without benefit of the writ of habeas corpus./1861

Related articles

• St. Louis Massacre (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Martial law in Baltimore, St. Louis (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Richmond the new capital, St. Louis Riots continue (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• April 21, 1861: Lyon authorized to muster troops (gathkinsons.net)
• May 10, 1861: The Camp Jackson affair (gathkinsons.net)
• April 29, 1861: Lyon seizes the St. Louis Arsenal (gathkinsons.net)
• Deadly Riots in St. Louis; Western Virginia's Rebellion Against Rebellion (civilwardailygazette.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)

Tennessee admitted; Kentucky proposes neutrality

First National CSA Flag with 9 stars

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

Related articles

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

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)

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

Upper South in turmoil

Professor Thomas J. Jackson, VMI

• Pro-secessionist riots continue in Baltimore, Maryland as President Lincoln meets at the White House with Baltimore Mayor Brown and General Winfield Scott to find ways to stop the violence./1861
• Colonel Thomas J. Jackson, professor at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia, attends chapel with the cadets this Sunday morning, then summons stagecoaches in the afternoon to the train station where he will lead nearly the entire school to travel to Richmond to enlist to defend Virginia, the Confederacy, and their homes./1861
• In Wheeling, western Virginia, Monongahela County hosts Pro-Union delegates from the northwestern countries of Virginia in the Virginia Union Convention to pass resolutions against secession and elect a provisional government that in 1863 will become the new state of West Virginia. Senator Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, is mobbed and treated rudely by a large crowd at Lynchburg, Virginia, as he passed through on his way from Washington to Tennessee. The Richmond Dispatch reported, “A large crowd assembled and groaned him, and offered every indignity he deserved, including pulling his nose.”  The conductor and others intervene, and Johnson is eventually able to continue on his way.”/1861 

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J.C. Breckenridge

• Kentucky Senator John C. Breckinridge (and former US Vice President and future Confederate general and Confederate Secretary of War) rightly denounces Lincoln’s proclamation calling for troops as illegal and unconstitutional unless Congress approves a declaration of hostilities./1861

• Louisiana Governor Moore asks the citizens of his state for 5,000 more infantry volunteers./1861
• Colonel Earl Van Dorn assumes command of Confederate forces in Texas./1861
• The Lincoln Administration, in a move to secure Washington, assumes government control of the Philadelphia and Baltimore Railroad. Manufacturers of Sharp’s rifles and Colt revolvers announce they will halt sales to the Southern states./1861
• North Carolina militia seizes the United States mint at Charlotte, N. C./1861

Related articles

• April 2, 1861: John Cabell Breckinridge speaks in Kentucky (gathkinsons.net)
• April 17, 1861: Governor Letcher calls out the Virginia militia (civilwar-online.com)
• April 16, 1861: Gov. Letcher says no troops (gathkinsons.net)