April 5 1861 Friday
South Carolina. US President Abraham Lincoln gave final orders for a substantial naval expedition to be sent to relieve Fort Sumter. The warships USS Powhatan and USS Pawnee (two steam-driven sloops), USS Pocahontas (armed screw steamer), and the US Revenue Cutter Harriet Lane were ordered to re-provision the garrison at Fort Sumter. The squadron commander was Captain Samuel Mercer USN. The steamer Baltic carried about 200 soldiers from the 2nd US Artillery (Companies C and D), and three tug boats were provided to help in landing the troops as reinforcements for the fort.
Texas. Fort Quitman was surrendered to the Texas authorities. The US Army garrison had been reduced to one officer (2nd Lieutenant Zenas Bliss) and 20 men. Fort Quitman was established on 28 September 1858 by the 8th US Infantry on the Rio Grande south of present-day Sierra Blanca, 20 miles southeast of McNary. The fort was named for former Mississippi Governor John A Quitman who served as a General during the Mexican–American War. Establishment. The mission was to protect the San Antonio to El Paso Road. It was also a station on the route of the mail coaches of the San Antonio to San Diego Mail Line and later the Butterfield Overland Mail.
By 1860 the garrison had been reduced to Second Lieutenant Zenas Bliss and 20 men. When Texas joined the Confederacy, Bliss and his men were ordered to march to San Antonio with all other US troops evacuating their garrisons in Texas. They expected to be sent away on ships but instead were held as prisoners of war. The Confederates never permanently garrisoned the fort. It was scouted by troops from the California Column in 1862 but there was no need to garrison the post.
Union Organisation
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 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
American Civil War High Command 