1861 March 19th

March 19 1861 Tuesday

Go to March 20 1861

Texas. Fort Clark, Fort Inge, and Fort Lancaster were abandoned by their US Army garrisons.
Camp Leona was established on 13 March 1849 by Captain Seth Eastman and fifty-six soldiers of companies D and I, 1st US Infantry. Camp Leona was on the Leona River, four miles above Woll’s Crossing. In December 1849 the post was renamed Fort Inge in honor of Lieutenant Zebulon M P Inge who was killed in the Mexican War. The fort was one of eight created by the command of General George Mercer Brooke to establish Federal authority along the Mexcian frontier. These forts were Fort Inge, Fort Lincoln, Fort Martin Scott, Fort Croghan, Fort Gates, Fort Graham, and Fort Worth. The garrisons protected the construction of the San Antonio-El Paso Military Road, escorted supply trains and the mail, guarded frontier settlements, and watched the border with Mexico.
Fort Clark was originally established as Fort Riley on 20 June 1852 by Major Joseph H La Motte (1st US Infantry), and named after the regiment’s Colonel. The fort was renamed Fort Clark on 15 July 1852 for Major John B Clark. Fort Clark’s original purpose was to guard the Mexican border and the San Antonio-El Paso Road. US Colonel Joseph King Fenno Mansfield in his inspection report of 1853 stated that Fort Clark was “544 miles without settlement of any description after leaving El Paso” and recommended three intervening forts to be built. The US Army troops at Fort Clark surrendered to the Provisional Army of Texas and Confederate forces occupied the fort until August 1862.
Fort Lancaster was established on 20 August 1855 by Captain Stephen D Carpenter (1st US Infantry) to guard the lower part of the San Antonio-El Paso Military Road. It was evacuated and occupied by Confederate troops

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

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
Edwin Vose Sumner

Brigadier-General USA (Staff)

Joseph Eggleston Johnston

Confederate Generals

Brigadier-General ACSA

Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard
Braxton Bragg