1861 January 5th

January 5 1861 Saturday

Go to January 6 1861

Alabama. Fort Morgan and Fort Gaines in Mobile Bay were seized and garrisoned by Alabama State troops.

District of Columbia/ The US Senators from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas met to discuss the options for seceding from the United States.

New York. The steamship Star of the West (Captain John McGowan USRM) sailed from New York City with 250 men as reinforcements and supplies for the garrison of Fort Sumter in Charleston harbour. Union Major-General Winfield Scott had decided on his own initiative to use the Star of the West rather than the USS Brooklyn, stationed at Norfolk, Virginia, which had previously been notified to prepare for the mission.

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 California: Benjamin Lloyd Beall temporary

Department of the East: John Ellis Wool

Department of New Mexico: Thomas Turner Fauntleroy

Department 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