Cold reception for Ohio Congressman

C.L. Vallandigham (D-OH)

• Clement Laird Vallandigham, Ohio’s third district Democratic US Congressman, an ardent abolitionist, states’ rights constitutionalist, and pacifist, today speaks to the Ohio regiments serving in Northern Virginia, but the response is cold. At one stop he is shouted down and pelted with stones and rubbish. His activities will get the attention of the Lincoln Administration before long, and that will not bode well for him. He will become known as a Copperhead, a Southern sympathizer in the North, and his wing of the Democratic Party will become known as Peace Democrats. /1861
• Confederate Lieutenant Kennon tries out mines on Union ships at Hampton Roads and the USS Pawnee on the Potomac with limited success. /1861 

Boonville, balloons, and bowie knives

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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

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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

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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

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• 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)

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 

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• 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)

Recruits flood armies; Skirmishes at Arlington, Fairfax, VA

• Confederate Mail Service begins as Confederate and US postal services end official cooperation , though mail will continue across the lines throughout the war in various ways./1861 
• In northern Virginia, a small body of raw Confederate recruits routs and disperses 85 Regulars of the Second United States Cavalry at Chantilly, Virginia. The 2nd US Cavalry had been sent from Arlington to reconnoiter and engages the Confederate troops at Arlington Mills and Fairfax Court House. Virginia Militia Captain John Q. Marr, an officer of promise, of the Warrenton (VA) Rifles is killed. He is one of the first Southern officers to die for independence. The Yankees suffer several dead and wounded, and leave seven dead horses and many arms in the street./1861 
• In a decision aimed at both United States and Confederate States vessels, the British government declares British territorial waters and ports off-limit to belligerents  vessels carrying spoils of war./1861
• In Virginia, Southern boys are gathering into training camps and issued obsolete Mexican War flintlocks as frantic orders are placed in Europe for the new cap lock muskets./1861
• At Cairo, Illinois, where the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers join, gun emplacements are being tested including a 32-lb. mortar./1861
• The Sons of Erin, citizens of Ireland living in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, volunteer for Confederate service./1861

Related articles

• May 26, 1861: Confederates short of arms in Virginia (civilwar-online.com)
• Jackson seizes 100mi of B&O; Commons debates CSA recognition (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Beauregard to command Confederate army in Virginia (wbts-calendar.blogspot.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

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• 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)

Jackson seizes 100mi of B&O; Commons debates CSA recognition

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B&O Railroad 1860 Map

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B&O double tracks in West Virginia today

• Confederate troops under Virginia Militia Colonel Thomas J. Jackson seize nearly 100 miles of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad from Point of Rocks, Maryland, where the line crosses the Potomac into western Virginia to its re-crossing of the Potomac at Cumberland, Maryland./1861
• The USS Union begins the blockade of Savannah, Georgia./1861

• US Brig. Gen. Robert Anderson assumes command of the Department of Kentucky while Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell assumes command of the Department of Northeastern Virginia./1861
• In the United Kingdom, the House of Commons takes up debate on recognition of the Confederate States of America./1861 
• Brig. Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard receives instructions to report to President Jefferson Davis at Richmond, Virginia, the new capital of the Confederacy./1861 

Related articles

• Calls for "New Virginia", Jackson seizes train (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)

SCOTUS: Suspension of habeas corpus unconstitutional

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Chief Justice Taney

• In Washington, D.C., the Supreme Court weighs in on Lincoln’s suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. John Merryman had been arrested May 25th and charged with treason for recruiting for the Confederate army. Merryman is being held at Fort McHenry, Baltimore, Maryland, by General George Cadwalader.  

Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney issues a writ of habeas corpus to be heard before him today in Baltimore, but Gen. Cadwalader, in command at Fort McHenry, refuses to execute the writ. Taney then issues a writ for the person of Gen. Cadwalader for contempt, but Cadwalader refuses to charge himself as well. 

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MG Geo. Cadwalader

Taney realizes that neither writ can be executed by force, so he refers the case to President Lincoln with an admonition that the laws of the U.S. need be respected and enforced. 

Ex Parte Merryman is argued with considerable heat on both sides.Taney contends that: 1. according to the Constitution, the President has no right to suspend the writ of habeas corpus; and 2. The military can only arrest persons subject to the rules and articles of war. 

The Lincoln Administration and military argue that Lincoln’s Proclamation 94 suspending the writ permitted Merryman’s arrest and imprisonment. The Administration further holds that in time of rebellion such actions are required in the interest of public safety.   

But Chief Justice Roger B. Taney dissents, ruling that the President does not have the power to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, even in time of rebellion. Thus, the arrest and detention of John Merryman is illegal. President Lincoln, who has offended the Constitution with impunity already several times, simply ignores the Court’s ruling, defies the rule of law, and continues to lock up anyone his Administration suspects of disloyal thoughts, words, or actions for any length of time they want without showing just cause for charging them./1861

• Union troops under Gen. Benjamin F. Butler occupy Newport News Point, Virginia, and construct Camp Butler as part of the Federal naval blockade. Federal control of this point closes the river link between Norfolk and Richmond./1861
• In western Virginia, Colonel Benjamin F. Kelley and his 1st Virginia (Federal) Infantry along with troops that would become the 2nd West Virginia Infantry depart Wheeling at sunrise to move on Grafton, western Virginia, to protect the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. In coordination, the 14th Ohio Infantry under Colonel Steedman arrives in Parkersburg, western Virginia./1861

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• Lincoln suspends writ of habeas corpus (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
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• April 25, 1861: Lincoln writes to Winfield Scott - let the Maryland legislature meet (civilwar-online.com)

McClellan invades western Virginia; Mobile, New Orleans blockaded

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G.B. McClellan

• US Major General George B. McClellan crosses the Ohio River with Ohio State troops to cover northwestern Virginia, ordering the 1^st Virginia (US) Infantry under command of Colonel Benjamin F. Kelley to move on Grafton, western Virginia, to protect the B&O Railroad/1861 
• Georgia Governor Joseph E. Brown receives a letter from Virginia Militia Major General Robert E. Lee, noting that many Georgia volunteer companies arriving in Virginia did not have weapons. Lee requests Brown to please send any firearms or other equipment with Georgia recruits coming north to defend the South./1861
• Lincoln’s Postmaster General, Montgomery Blair announces the halt of all postal connections with the Confederate States as of May 31, but mail communication across the lines would continue throughout the war under flag of truce./1861
• The US naval blockade is emplaced at Mobile, Alabama, and New Orleans, Louisiana. The United States sloop of war Brooklyn, lately involved with the relief of Fort Pickens, at Pensacola, Florida, directs the blockade at New Orleans./1861

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• George McClellan Goes National; Scott's Anaconda Plan; More Troops (civilwardailygazette.com)
• May 14, 1861: Hampton Roads blockade nabs four more ships (civilwar-online.com)
• Lee to command Virginia militia (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Lee Makes Moves into Western Virginia (civilwardailygazette.com)
• May 10, 1861: Lee placed in charge of Virginia (civilwar-online.com)
• May 2, 1861: Winfield Scott's Anaconda Plan (gathkinsons.net)

Ellsworth funeral; Merryman arrested

• In Washington, the body of 24 year old US Colonel Elmer Ellsworth lies in state in the East Room of the White House where his funeral service is held today. Ellsworth was a personal friend of the Lincolns, and his dramatic death, the first Union officer killed – shot to death while tearing down a Confederate flag from an Alexandria, Virginia, hotel, all factor into making him the first martyr of the Union cause. The Lincoln Administration uses his death to great patriotic advantage./1861
• In order to prevent easy access to Washington for Confederate armies, Union troops destroy 7 bridges and 5 miles of railroad between Alexandria and Leesburg, Virginia./1861
• John Merryman, a Baltimore, Maryland, politician and first lieutenant of the Baltimore County Horse Guards, is arrested by military authorities at his home in Cockeysville, Maryland, for recruiting for the Confederate army, charged with treason, and sent to prison in Fort McHenry, Baltimore, Maryland, without benefit of a writ of habeas corpus. Merryman will petition for a writ of habeas corpus, which will be granted by Chief Justice Taney, but the writ will be disobeyed by General George Cadwalader, the arresting officer, under orders from President Lincoln, even though Taney will cite Cadwalader for contempt. Taney will declare Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus unconstitutional./1861
• Virginia troops under the command of Lieutenant Colonel William J. Willey, half brother of  Waitman T. Willey, burn railroad trestles of the Baltimore & Ohio line between Mannington and Farmington, western Virginia./1861

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• Washington's security worries Lincoln (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Calls for "New Virginia", Jackson seizes train (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Lincoln Suspends Writ of Habeas Corpus; Jackson to the Valley (civilwardailygazette.com)
• Lincoln suspends writ of habeas corpus (wbts-calendar.blogspot.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

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• 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)

Jackson moves on B&O; Butler to Fortress Monroe

Col. T.J. Jackson in 1857

• Colonel Thomas J. Jackson, commanding Virginia Militia Forces at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, has realized that large quantities of coal are being shipped over the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad from the Ohio Valley to Union naval bases in Baltimore, Maryland, to fuel U.S. Navy steam warships for the blockade of the Southern States. Tonight, Jackson dispatches the 5th Virginia Infantry under Kenton Harper to Cherry Run, west of Martinsburg, western Virginia, and he simultaneously orders Captain John D. Imboden's cavalry to the Potomac at  Point of Rocks, Maryland, east of Harpers Ferry, Virginia. The 5th Virginia takes up a position at the Potomac River bridge near Cherry Run, 32 miles east of Harpers Ferry north and west of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Martinsburg Shops. Imboden's cavalry set up at the signal tower west of Point of Rocks, Maryland 12 miles east of Harpers Ferry./1861

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B.F. Butler

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Fortress Monroe from air

• US Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler is assigned to the command of Fortress Monroe, Virginia. He would become known as one of the most notorious of Federal officers of the War, and he will soon be embroiled in a legal and ethical controversy (and a public relations nightmare for the Lincoln Administration) over runaway slaves showing up at Fortress Monroe./1861
• Texas Militia under Santos Benavides defeat Mexican bandit leader Juan Cortina, at the Battle of Carrizo, Texas, near present day Zapata, Texas./1861

Related articles

• Butler Takes Baltimore Without Orders; Sherman's Dreadful Predictions (civilwardailygazette.com)
• Now We are in a State of War Which Will Yield Nothing (civilwardailygazette.com)
• The Brink of Revolution: Blood Will Flow - Virginia's Secession (civilwardailygazette.com)
• April 24, 1861: Butler offers to put down slave insurrection (gathkinsons.net)
• More Blood in St. Louis; Jackson Needs More Guns (civilwardailygazette.com)

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)