1861 March 2nd

March 2 1861 Saturday

Dakota Territory Organised
Nevada Territory Organised

Go to March 3 1861

USA. In the absence of opposition, the US Congress passed the Morrill Tariff Act, a high protective tariff long opposed by Southern congressmen.

CSA. Texas was formally admitted to the Confederate States of America.

District of Columbia. The Peace Convention sponsored a Constitutional amendment in Congress presented by Senator John J Crittenden, of Kentucky. The proposal was defeated and marked the end and failure of the Peace Convention.

Dakota Territory. The Dakota Territory was organised. It was formed from all of the portions of Nebraska Territory north of 43° N, along with the portion of present-day Nebraska between 43° N and the Keya Paha and Niobrara rivers. The act creating the Dakota Territory also included provisions granting Nebraska small portions of Utah Territory and Washington Territory, bounded by 41° N, 110°03′ W (33° W of Washington, D.C.), 43° N, and the Continental Divide. These portions had not been part of the Louisiana Purchase; they had been part of Oregon Country and became part of the United States in 1846.

Nevada Territory. The Nevada Territory was organised. Prior to the creation of the Nevada Territory, the area was part of western Utah Territory and was known as Washoe, after the native Washoe people. The separation of the territory from Utah was important to the federal government because of its political leanings, while the population itself was keen to be separated because of animosity (and sometimes violence) between non-Mormons in Nevada and Mormons from the rest of the Utah Territory. The eastern boundary of Nevada Territory had been defined as the 116^th meridian, but when gold discoveries were made to the east the Nevada territorial delegation to Congress requested the boundary moved to the 115^th meridian, which Congress granted in 1862. The southern border of Nevada Territory was defined as the 37^th parallel. The exact location of the due north-south California-Nevada border, between Lake Tahoe and the intersection of the southern boundary of Oregon at the 42nd parallel, was contentious and was to be surveyed and re-surveyed many times.

Texas. The US Revenue cutter Henry Dodge was seized in Galveston Bay by Texas state troops.

Union Organisation

USA: Nevada Territory and Dakota Territory were included in the Union Department of the Pacific.

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 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 temporary

Department of Utah: Philip St George Cooke

Department of the West: William Selby Harney

Confederate Organisation

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

Union Generals

Major-General USA

Winfield Scott

Brigadier-General USA

John Ellis Wool
William Selby Harney

Brigadier-General USA (Staff)

Joseph Eggleston Johnston

Confederate Generals

Brigadier-General ACSA

Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard