1861 February 26th

February 26 1861 Tuesday

Go to February 27 1861

CSA. The Confederate Congress authorised the creation of Staff and administrative bureaux for the Confederate Army.

Texas. Camp Colorado was abandoned by US forces led by Major Edmund Kirby Smith (2nd US Cavalry). Camp Colorado was established on 2 August 1856 by Captain Earl Van Dorn and two companies of the 2nd US Cavalry six miles north of the Colorado River on the road leading from Fort Mason to Fort Belknap. It was named after the Colorado River. The post was relocated in July 1857 to a healthier location 22 miles north of the original site on Jim Ned Creek. All of the Federal troops except for 1st Lieutenant George Blake Cosby went into Confederate service. Cosby later joined the Confederacy himself and was appointed Brigadier-General. The post was occupied by Texas State troops and remained in Confederate hands as headquarters of the Texas Mounted Rifles in 1861 and the Texas Frontier Regiment in 1863. It was abandoned in 1865 and not garrisoned after the war.

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 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

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”: Braxton Bragg

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

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