Florida secedes

Pensacola Bay & Fort Pickens

• Florida votes 62-7 to secede from the Union. After the vote is announced, US Lieutenant A.G. Slemmer at Fort Barrancas in Pensacola  transfers the Federal garrison there to Fort Pickens on Santa Rosa Island./1861

• Senator Jefferson Davis (D-MS) before the Senate calls for a clear response from the Congress and the Buchanan Administration to the events in the South. Davis, who is a cooperationist and opposes secession as the best course, criticizes the Administration’s use of ‘physical force’ to settle matters, referring to recent events involving Major Anderson’s midnight act of war in moving to Fort Sumter and mounting guns on the city of Charleston, Buchanan’s attempted reinforcement of Fort Sumter with the Star of the West, and President-elect Lincoln’s adamant and arrogant anti-compromise attitude toward the South. Senator Davis pleads that United States authority be exercised “by constitutional agreement between the States.”/1861

• [SIEGE OF FORT SUMTER] At Fort Sumter, US Major Robert Anderson is ordered to emphasize defensive preparations in the face of state military seizures of federal property across the South/1861

• State troops in Louisiana seize Fort Jackson, Fort St. Philip, and the Federal arsenal at Baton Rouge/1861