1861 March 15th

March 15 1861 Friday

Go to March 16 1861

USA. After being asked their opinions by US President Abraham Lincoln, all of the Cabinet members except for Montgomery Blair advised against the reinforcement of the beleaguered garrison at Fort Sumter. Secretary of the Treasury Salmon Portland Chase and Secretary of State William Henry Seward opposed the move unless Fort Pickens was also reinforced. Seward even made unauthorised assurances to Governor Pickens of South Carolina that the fort would presently be surrendered to the state authorities. Advice from the General-in-Chief of the Army Major-General Winfield Scott recommended that a force of 20,000 men would be required to achieve the relief of the fort if required but that was a force far beyond Federal capacity. The Navy, on the other hand, reported that a clandestine or cautious re-supply expedition without an attempt to land troops was a feasible option.

CSA: Confederate Lieutenant-Colonel Abraham Myers was appointed as Quartermaster General of the Confederate Army. His appointment was made official in December, with a promotion to Colonel on 15 February 1862. As president of the Military Board, Myers helped design the first Confederate Army uniform: “a blue flannel shirt, gray flannel pants, a red flannel undershirt, cotton drawers, wool socks, boots, and a cap.” As Quartermaster-General, Myers was hampered by insufficient funds, the failure of the Confederate States dollar, and poor railroad connections in the South. Myers was very skilled at accountancy but rarely outside his US Army training and experience, and did not control “the laxity, carelessness, and inefficiency of remote subordinates”

CSA. The Confederate Congress authorised the construction or purchase of ten gunboats for service with the Confederate Navy.

Texas. Camp Wood was abandoned by the US Army. This was a Cavalry Camp established on 20 May 1857 by Lieutenant J B Wiod and a company of the 1st US Cavalry on the site of the abandoned Spanish Mission San Lorenzo de la Santa Cruz in Real County. It was named Camp Wood after Brevet Major George W F Wood, who died of disease contracted in the Mexican War and Second Seminole War. The post was positioned to protect the San Antonio-El Paso road and the Rio Grande Valley. It was occupied by Texas State troops and used intermittently by the Confederate Frontier Battalion under Colonel James Morris.

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: Confederate Colonel Abraham Charles Myers was appointed as Acting Quartermaster General of the Confederate Army.

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