March 6 1861 Wednesday
CSA. The membership of the Confederate States’ Cabinet was completed. It comprised:
Secretary of State Robert Augustus Toombs
Secretary of War Leroy Pope Walker
Secretary of the Navy Stephen Russell Mallory
Secretary of the Treasury Christopher G Memminger
Attorney General Judah Philip Benjamin
Postmaster General John Henninger Reagan.
CSA. The Confederacy established a Regular Army, termed as the Army of the Confederate States of America (ACSA). It was intended to be an equivalent of the US Regular Army but it never properly existed in a tangible form. The ACSA broadly adopted the rules and regulations of the US Regular Army, apart from its name. The Regular Army was authorised to appoint four Brigadier-Generals. About 750 officers were commissioned in the Regular Army (ACSA) but subsequent commissions were made in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States. All officers who left the US Regular Army were to be offered commissions at their same relative grade in the Confederate Army, although in practice the great majority of them were commissioned to at least one grade higher.
CSA. The Confederate Provisional Congress called for volunteers to create the Provisional Army of the Confederate States (PACS) which was to become the effective military force of the Confederacy. The Act permitted the establishment of an army not exceeding 100,000 men for twelve months’ service. Congress also authorised the creation of staff, brigades, and divisions. The majority of Confederate officers were to be given assignments in the Provisional Army (PACS). Regiments were to be raised by the various States but grouped into brigades commanded by Confederate officers.
CSA. The Confederate Congress passed an act establishing the Confederate States Lighthouse Bureau, with its chief officer to be a Captain or Commander of the Confederate States’ Navy. The former US Navy Commander Raphael Semmes was assigned to the command, reporting for duty on 4 April 1861.
District of Columbia. US President Abraham Lincoln refused to meet three envoys sent by the Confederate Government, Martin J Crawford, John Forsyth, and A B Brown. The envoys attempted unsuccessfully to arrange meetings with the new Federal administration as if they represented a sovereign nation.
Missouri. The Missouri state convention called for a convention of the Southern states which had not yet seceded, to meet at Nashville, Tennessee, on 15 April 1861 “providing for such amendments to the Constitution of the United States as shall secure to all the states equal rights in the Union”, and declaring strongly against secession.
South Carolina. Confederate Brigadier-General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard took steps to ensure that no supplies were available to help the garrison of Fort Sumter, where food was running out. He increased the frequency of training drills amongst the South Carolina Militia, preparing them to operate the guns facing the fort. Ironically, the fort’s garrison commander Major Robert Anderson had been Beauregard’s artillery instructor at West Point Military Academy and Beauregard had become Anderson’s assistant after graduation.
Texas. Fort Brown was surrendered to the Texas state authorities. Fort Brown (originally Fort Texas) was the first US Army military post in the recently annexed state of Texas. In 1846, Captain Joseph King Fenno Mansfield directed the construction of a star-shaped earthwork for 800 men on the northern side of the Rio Grande, to control the city of Matamoros south of the river. During the Mexican–American War, Fort Texas was besieged and Major Jacob Brown was killed. In honor of the fallen major, Brigadier-General Zachary Taylor renamed the post as Fort Brown. The city of Brownsville was established not far from the fort in 1849. Confederate Colonel John Salmon Ford occupied the fort with a garrison until 1863. Ford served as a member of the Secession Convention and initiated a trade agreement between Mexico and the Confederate States. Ford also commanded the Rio Grande Military District and defended Zapata County from Mexican invaders who did not want Texas in the Confederacy in the Second Cortina War. Several invaders were killed, marking the first deaths in defence of the Confederacy, about two weeks before the outbreak of hostilities at Fort Sumter. Between 1862 and 1865, Ford ran the Bureau of Conscription for Texas and conducted border operations protecting Confederate-Mexican trade.
Union Organisation
Commander in Chief: President Abraham Lincoln
Vice-President: Hannibal Hamlin
Secretary of War: Simon Cameron
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
Department of Utah: Philip St George Cooke
Department of the West: William Selby Harney
Confederate Organisation
CSA: Brigadier-General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard arrived to assume command of the Department of South Carolina.
CSA: Brigadier-General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard arrived to assume command of the Forces in Charleston.
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
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
American Civil War High Command 