Buchanan's act of war

SS Star of the West

• [SEIGE OF FORT SUMTER] US President Buchanan dispatches additional men and supplies on a "top-secret" mission for Fort Sumter. In order to soften Buchanan's action, General Winfield Scott ruled out the use of the man-of-war USS Brooklyn and replaced it with the merchant ship Star of the West which sails from New York with 250 Federal troops on board. This reinforcement is a bald act of war against South Carolina by a President who has refused to meet with the commissioners whom the state had present in Washington for negotiations. /1861 

• In Washington, US senators from seven Southern states meet, concluding that their states should secede from the Union – Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas/1861

• [SC SECESSION CONVENTION] Having voted for South Carolina to resume its sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment, the first session of the Convention of the People of South Carolina adjourns/1861

• Fort Gaines and Fort Morgan in Mobile Bay, Alabama, are seized by Alabama state troops./1861