1861 March 11th

March 11 1861 Monday

Adoption of the Confederate Constitution

CSA. The Confederacy Convention, acting as a provisional Congress, accepted the Constitution of the Confederate States of America and sent it out for ratification by the seceding states. The Constitution broadly followed that of the United States but prohibited the passage of any “law denying or impairing the right of property in Negro slaves”. It prohibited the “importation of negroes of the African race from any foreign country other than the Untied States of America“. It also gave the Confederate Congress the power to “prohibit the introduction of slaves from any State not a member of or territory not belonging to” the Confederacy. The preamble included a declaration of the “sovereign and independent character” of each State.

CSA. The Confederate Constitution authorised the President to nominate and appoint General Officers for service in the Confederate Army. The first two men to be appointed were Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard and Braxton Bragg, commanding the forces gathering around Charleston, South Carolina, and Pensacola, Florida, respectively.

Union Organisation

Commander in Chief: President Abraham Lincoln
Vice-President: Hannibal Hamlin
Secretary of War: Simon Cameron
Secretary of the Navy: Gideon Welles

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 T Fauntleroy interim, William Wing Loring awaited

Department of the Pacific: Albert Sidney Johnston

District of Oregon: George Wright

Department of Texas: Carlos Adolphus Waite

Department of Utah: Philip St George Cooke

Department of the West: William Selby Harney

Confederate Organisation

CSA: Brigadier-General Braxton Bragg arrived to assume command of the Department of West Florida.
CSA: Brigadier-General Braxton Bragg arrived to assume command of Forces in Pensacola. This effectively comprised all troops collected in Florida and opposing the garrison of Fort Pickens.

Commander in Chief: 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

Department of South Carolina: Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard

“Forces in Charleston”: Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard

Department of West Florida: Braxton Bragg

“Forces in Pensacola”: Braxton Bragg

Union Generals

Major-General USA

Winfield Scott

Brigadier-General USA

John Ellis Wool
David Emanuel Twiggs

Brigadier-General USA (Staff)

Joseph Eggleston Johnston

Confederate Generals

Brigadier-General ACSA

Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard
Braxton Bragg