February 10 1861 Sunday
Mississippi. Jefferson Finis Davis was at his plantation when he was notified by officials of the provisional government of the Confederate States that he had been elected unanimously as President of the new nation. The Constitutional Convention in Montgomery, Alabama, comprised delegates from the six seceded states: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Alabama.
Before resigning from the US Senate on 21 January 1861, Davis had sent a telegraph to Mississippi Governor John J Pettus informing him that he was available to serve the state. On 27 January, Pettus appointed him a Major-General of Mississippi’s militia.
Davis was elected because of his political prominence,[ his military reputation, and his comparatively moderate approach to secession, which Confederate leaders thought might persuade undecided Southerners to support the cause. While he preferred to serve in a military command, he committed himself fully to his new role.
Oregon Territory. Incident at Columbia River.
Union Organisation
Commander in Chief: President James Buchanan
Vice-President: John Cabell Breckinridge
Secretary of War: Joseph Holt
Secretary of the Navy: Isaac Toucey
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 Pacific: Albert Sidney Johnston
- District of Oregon: George Wright
Department of the East: John Ellis Wool
Department of New Mexico: Thomas Turner Fauntleroy
Department of Texas: David Emanuel Twiggs
Department of Utah: Philip St George Cooke
Department of the West: William Selby Harney
Confederate Organisation
President: Thomas Howell Cobb (interim)
Vice-President: Alexander Hamilton Stephens
Union Generals
Major-General USA
Winfield Scott
Brigadier-General USA
John Ellis Wool
David Emanuel Twiggs
William Selby Harney
Brigadier-General USA (Staff)
Joseph Eggleston Johnston
American Civil War High Command 