1861 April 10th

April 10 1861 Wednesday

Fort Sumter Operations

District of Columbia. Militia and volunteer forces were mobilised by Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Ferguson Smith for the active defence of the capital district after he arrived to command the new Department of Washington.

South Carolina. The US Revenue Cutter Harriet Lane arrived off Charleston before midnight, the first vessel in an expedition sent by President Abraham Lincoln to relieve and resupply the garrison of Fort Sumter. USS Powhatan had left New York along with troops aboard the steamer Baltic. USS Pawnee was just leaving Hampton Roads, Virginia, to join the expedition.

Fort Sumter, South Carolina. Confederate Brigadier-General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, commanding the provisional Confederate forces at Charleston, was instructed to demand the evacuation of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbour. The garrison commander US Major Robert Anderson answered that he would evacuate the fort by noon on 15 April, unless in the meantime he was attacked or received a replenishment of his supplies or other instructions from Washington, DC. Beauregard advised that he was empowered by the Confederate government to reduce the fort by siege and he announced that he would open fire at 4.20 am on 12 April 1861.

Virginia. USS Pawnee (Commander Stephen Clegg Rowan) departed Hampton Roads to join the relief expedition on its way to Fort Sumter.

Virginia. Captain Charles S McCauley USN, Commandant of the Norfolk Navy Yard, was ordered to put the USS Merrimack in condition for a move to a Northern yard should it become necessary.

Union Organisation

USA: Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston resigned as commander of the Department of the Pacific

USA: Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Ferguson Smith arrived to command the Department of Washington.

Commander in Chief: President Abraham Lincoln
Vice-President: Hannibal Hamlin
Secretary of War: Simon Cameron
Secretary of the Navy: Gideon Welles

African Squadron: William Inman
Brazil Squadron: Joshua Ratoon Sands
East Indian (Asiatic) Squadron: Cornelius Kinchiloe Stribling
European Squadron: vacant
Home Squadron: Garrett J Prendergast
Mediterranean Squadron: Charles H Bell
Pacific Squadron: John Berrien Montgomery

General–in-Chief: Winfield Scott

Department of the East: John Ellis Wool

Department of New Mexico: William Wing Loring

Department of the Pacific: Albert Sidney Johnston interim Edwin Vose Sumner awaited

District of Oregon: George Wright

Department of Texas: Carlos Adolphus Waite

Department of Utah: Philip St George Cooke

Department of Washington: Charles Ferguson Smith assumed

Department of the West: William Selby Harney

Confederate Organisation

Commander in Chief: President Jefferson Finis Davis
Vice-President: Alexander Hamilton Stephens
Secretary of War: Leroy Pope Walker
Secretary of the Navy: Stephen Russell Mallory

“Department of Louisiana”: David Emanuel Twiggs

“Forces in New Orleans” “Army of Louisiana”: Braxton Bragg

Department of South Carolina: Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard

“Forces in Charleston”: Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard

Department of West Florida: Braxton Bragg

“Forces in Pensacola”: Braxton Bragg

Forces in Harper’s Ferry”: Kenton Harper

Union Generals

Major-General USA

Winfield Scott

Brigadier-General USA

John Ellis Wool
William Selby Harney
Edwin Vose Sumner

Brigadier-General USA (Staff)

Joseph Eggleston Johnston

Confederate Generals

Major-General PACS

David Emanuel Twiggs

Brigadier-General ACSA

Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard
Braxton Bragg