May 12 1861 Sunday
Maryland. Troops under Massachusetts State Brigadier-General Benjamin Franklin Butler restored Union control in Baltimore over armed pro-secessionist groups.
Missouri. The Missouri General Assembly created the Missouri State Guard to defend the state from attacks from perceived enemies, either from the North or South. The governor appointed Sterling Price as Major-General of State Militia, and specifically of the Missouri State Guard. Fearing Missouri’s drift towards the Confederacy, Union Brigadier-General William Selby Harney drew up a truce with Price which affirmed Missouri’s neutrality in the impending conflict. Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson declared his support for the Union.
Harney’s action was considered to be too favourable to the secessionist cause. Captain Nathaniel Lyon, who had been leading the pro-Union resistance, was promoted Brigadier-General of Missouri Militia to provide a pro-Union counter-balance. President Abraham Lincoln made a specific request for Missouri troops to be recruited into Union service, which Governor Jackson refused.
South Carolina. USS Niagara, Captain William Wister McKean, captured the blockade-runner General Parkhill, en route from Liverpool to Charleston.
Union Organisation
USA: Captain Nathaniel Lyon was promoted Brigadier-General of Missouri Militia.
Lyon, Nathaniel / Connecticut / Born 14 July 1818 Ashford, Connecticut / KIA Wilson’s Creek, Missouri 10 August 1861
USMA 1 July 1841 11/52 Infantry / Cadet USMA 1 July 1837 / 2nd Lieutenant USA 2nd US Infantry 1 July 1841 / 1st Lieutenant USA 16 February 1847 / Captain USA 11 June 1851 / Brigadier-General Missouri Militia 12 May 1861 / Brigadier-General USV 17 May 1861 / Brevet Captain USA 20 August 1847 WIA Chapultepec 13 September 1847
Department of the West 23 April 1861-28 April 1861 / Department of the West 31 May 1861-3 July 1861 / Army of the West 2 July 1861-10 August 1861 / 3 July 1861 -24 July 1861 Western Department
Commander in Chief: President Abraham Lincoln
Vice-President: Hannibal Hamlin
Secretary of War: Simon Cameron
Secretary of the Navy: Gideon Welles
- Coast Blockading Squadron USN: Flag Officer Silas Horton Stringham USN
- Gulf Blockading Squadron USN: Flag Officer William Mervine USN
- Pacific Squadron USN: Captain John B Montgomery USN
- Potomac Flotilla USN: Commander James Harmon Ward USN
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: 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 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
Benjamin McCulloch
