1861 May 12th

May 12 1861 Sunday

Go to May 13 1861

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.

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

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