February 12 1861 Tuesday
USA. Horatio King was appointed US Postmaster General.
Arkansas. Before Arkansas seceded from the Union in May, Governor Henry Rector ordered the seizure of the Marine Hospital and ammunition shipments at Napoleon by Arkansas State forces. While the citizens of Arkansas waited to vote about secession, military supplies in the state or in transit along its borders were targeted by secessionist militia and citizens. The US Army shipped supplies down the Mississippi River from St Louis, Missouri, to the arsenal and garrison at Fort Smith. The steamer Sunshine departed St Louis on 15 January 1861, and carried equipment to outfit eighty-three cavalry horses. The steamer Southwester followed on 21 January with 130,000 rounds of ammunition. On or before 12 February 1861, both steamers were seized in the vicinity of Napoleon by men claiming to represent the state of Arkansas. More military stores were later seized at Pine Bluff and at Fort Smith after it was abandoned in the face of a growing threat of an attack on that post.
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 