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: 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: 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
American Civil War High Command 