January 25 1861 Friday
Georgia. The US Arsenal in Augusta was seized by Georgia State forces. The Arsenal was established in 1816 and initially completed on the Georgia bank of the Savannah River in 1819. it was moved to the former Belle Vue estate in the Summerville neighbourhood of Augusta in 1827 due to health concerns. Its four large brick buildings were connected by a twenty-two inch thick wall completed in 1829. Following the secession of Georgia from the Union, Governor Joseph E Brown, visited the arsenal on 23 1861 and demanded that the US Army commander, Captain Arnold Elzey surrender the arsenal to the state. Elzey refused and prepared his contingent of 82 soldiers to hold out. Colonel Alexander Robert Lawton raised 600 to 700 men of the 1st Georgia Militia to take the arsenal by force. Brown gave Elzey a second chance to surrender, demanding an answer by 9.00 am on 24 January. After notifying his superiors of the situation by telegraph, Elzey turned the arsenal over to the state on 25 January 1861. The Arsenal contained two 12-pound howitzers, two other cannons, 22,000 muskets and rifles, and large stores of powder and artillery ammunition.
The Confederates occupied the arsenal and expanded the arsenal to provide ammunition, field and siege artillery projectiles, and ordnance stores in general. By April 1862, the arsenal was placed under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel George Washington Rains who was also put in charge of erecting the enormous Confederate Powderworks, at the former arsenal site from 1816. The arsenal produced large quantities of munitions and supplies from 1863 to 1865. The arsenal was surrendered to Union control on 3 May 1865.
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: David Emanuel Twiggs
Department of Utah: Philip St George Cooke
Department of the West: William Selby Harney
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 