1861 February 22nd

February 22 1861 Friday

Go to February 23 1861

Arkansas.  John Ross, principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, rejected a proposition by Governor Henry M Rector to join the Confederacy.

Pennsylvania. After making speeches at Philadelphia and Harrisburg, US President-elect Abraham Lincoln learned of the supposed “Baltimore Plot” which intended to prevent his travel to the capital city. He agreed to be smuggled incognito into Washington, DC, after an overnight trip from Harrisburg. Telegraph wires were cut from Harrisburg as the train departed and evidence was gathered by detectives led by the detective agent Allan Pinkerton which suggested that the threatened Plot was more substantial than mere gossip.

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 MontgomeryN

General–in-Chief: Winfield Scott

Department of the East: John Ellis Wool

Department of New Mexico: Thomas Turner Fauntleroy interim, William Wing Loring awaited

Department of the Pacific: Albert Sidney Johnston

• District of Oregon: George Wright

Department of Texas: Carlos Adolphus Waite temporary

Department of Utah: Philip St George Cooke

Department of the West: William Selby Harney

Confederate Organisation

CSA: The unofficial “Department of Louisiana” was established to organise the military resources of the state.
CSA: Louisiana State Major-General Braxton Bragg assumed command of the “Department of Louisiana”.
CSA: The Forces in New Orleans was established. It was also referred to unofficially as the “Army of Louisiana” or the field forces of the “Department of Louisiana”.
CSA: Louisiana State Major-General Braxton Bragg assumed command of Confederate Forces in New Orleans (otherwise known unofficially as the Army of Louisiana).

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” established: Braxton Bragg assumed

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

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