1861 May 10th

May 10 1861 Friday

Camp Jackson, MO

Camp Jackson Operations

USA. US President Abraham Lincoln directed all officers of the US Army to renew their Oath of Allegiance.

CSA. A secret Act of the Confederate Congress, signed by President Jefferson Finis Davis, authorised the Navy Department to send an agent abroad to purchase six additional steam propellers, rifled artillery, small arms, and other ordnance stores and munitions.

Maryland. The Maryland House of Delegates passed a series of resolutions reported by the Committee on US Relations declaring that Maryland should protest against the war, and implored US President Abraham Lincoln, to make peace with the Confederate States; also, that “the State of Maryland desires the peaceful and immediate recognition of the independence of the Confederate States.”

Maryland. Brigadier-General of Massachusetts Militia Benjamin Franklin Butler captured the experimental Winans Steam Gun near the Relay House.

Camp Jackson, Missouri and St Louis Riot. Claiborne Fox Jackson, the pro-Confederate Governor of Missouri, wanted the state to secede and join the Confederacy. There was a strong pro-secession population but overall sentiment in the state was initially for neutrality. An elected state convention did not pass a secession ordinance, as Jackson had hoped it might. However, pro-secession elements did not let this setback dissuade them. They had already seized the small Union armoury at Liberty in April and planned to confiscate a much larger stock of weapons located at the St Louis Arsenal. US Regular Army Captain Nathaniel Lyon was convinced that Governor Jackson was plotting treason and decided to secure the St Louis Arsenal for the Union and also to capture the pro-Confederate militia as they drilled at nearby Camp Jackson in Lindell Grove. He led four volunteer regiments (mainly German militia units) along with a battalion of the 2^nd US Infantry to take possession of weapons at the St Louis Arsenal and safeguard Union property from the substantial pro-Confederate elements in the state.
Lyon captured Camp Jackson and the encamped pro-Secession militia of Brigadier-General of Missouri Militia Daniel Marsh Frost. Frost was in a hopeless situation against better-drilled and equipped troops and surrendered between 635 and 1,000 prisoners. Lyon marched the prisoners through St Louis, inadvertently inciting a deadly riot. A hostile crowd pelted the Union volunteers but after a drunken civilian shot and wounded a Union officer, Colonel Boernstein ordered his regiment and an artillery detachment under Lieutenant Rufus Saxton to open fire, killing 28 people and breaking up the secessionist assembly.
The bloodshed provoked protests from Missourians, and even representatives of the City of St Louis petitioned US President Abraham Lincoln for Lyon’s dismissal. With the latent pro-Confederate sentiments of the state inflamed, the Missouri legislature promptly passed a bill creating the Missouri State Guard, which commenced forming from a core of the state militia. Lyon’s action was supported by most of St Louis’ Unconditional Unionists, including the influential Congressman Francis Preston Blair Jr. Lyon was an avowed abolitionist, a vocal advocate of President Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party and, although he was directed without authority by US Representative Francis Preston Blair, he was a willing conspirator.

South Carolina. The first blockade patrol of Charleston Harbour was imposed by the USS Niagara.

Virginia. Virginia State Major-General Robert Edward Lee was appointed to command the state forces of Virginia.

Union Organisation

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

Coast Blockading Squadron: Silas Horton Stringham
Gulf Blockading Squadron: William Mervine
Pacific Squadron: John Berrien Montgomery
Potomac Flotilla: James Harmon Ward

General–in-Chief: Winfield Scott

Department of Annapolis: Benjamin Franklin Butler awaited

Department of the East: John Ellis Wool

Department of Florida: Harvey Brown

Department of New Mexico: Vacant

Department of the Ohio: George Brinton McClellan awaited

Department of the Pacific: Edwin Vose Sumner

District of Oregon: George Wright

Department of Pennsylvania: Robert Patterson

Department of Texas: Vacant

Department of Utah: Philip St George Cooke

Department of Washington: Joseph King Fenno Mansfield

Department of the West: Edmund Brooke Alexander temporary

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 Alexandria: Philip St George Cocke

Alexandria Line: Philip St George Cocke

Department of North Carolina: Theophilus Hunter Holmes

Defences of North Carolina: Theophilus Hunter Holmes

Department of South Carolina: Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard

“Forces in Charleston”: Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard

Department of Southwestern Virginia: William Wing Loring

Department of Texas: Earl Van Dorn

Department of West Florida: Braxton Bragg

“Forces in Pensacola”: Braxton Bragg

District of Louisiana: David Emanuel Twiggs

“Forces in New Orleans” “Army of Louisiana”: Braxton Bragg

Defences of Savannah: Alexander Robert Lawton

Potomac Line: Daniel Ruggles

Forces in Harper’s Ferry”: Thomas Jonathan Jackson

“Forces in Norfolk”: Walter Gwynn

Forces in Richmond: John Bankhead Magruder

Forces in the Kanawha Valley: Christopher Quarles Tompkins

Union Generals

Major-General USA

Winfield Scott

Brigadier-General USA

John Ellis Wool
William Selby Harney
Edwin Vose Sumner

Confederate Generals

Note: Italics, awaiting confirmation of the commission

Major-General PACS

David Emanuel Twiggs

Brigadier-General ACSA

Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard
Braxton Bragg

Brigadier-General PACS

Alexander Robert Lawton
Milledge Lake Bonham