1861 May 13th

May 13 1861 Monday

Great Britain proclaimed Neutrality

Great Britain. Queen Victoria proclaimed British neutrality and forbade British subjects to endeavour to break the Union blockade, thereby unofficially recognising the Confederacy as a belligerent but not as a sovereign nation.

Maryland. Both Houses of the Maryland state legislature adopted a resolution providing for a committee of eight members, four from each House, to visit the President of the United States and the President of the Southern Confederacy. The committee chosen to visit Confederate President Jefferson Finis Davis was instructed to convey the assurance that Maryland sympathised with the Confederate states and that the people of Maryland were wholeheartedly on the side of reconciliation and peace.

Maryland. Moving from Relay Station, the Union 6th Massachusetts Infantry and 8th Massachusetts Infantry moved onto Federal Hill to dominate the city of Baltimore. The movement was made without the official authorisation of Union Major-General Winfield Scott, and was led by Brigadier-General of Massachusetts Militia Benjamin Franklin Butler.

North Carolina. North Carolina elected delegates to a state convention, as ordered to do so by the state legislature on 1 May 1861.

Ohio. Union Major-General George Brinton McClellan arrived to take command of the Department of the Ohio at the headquarters in Cincinnati. He planned an offensive into the western counties of Virginia with the optimistic hope that this would develop into a campaign towards the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. His immediate objectives were to occupy territory in western Virginia to protect the predominantly pro-Union population of the area and to keep open the critical Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.

Virginia. The Union 1^st Vermont Infantry under Colonel John Wolcott Phelps reinforced the garrison at Fort Monroe. Several other volunteer regiments followed on to make it an impregnable base for the Union Army.

Virginia. A convention of pro-Union delegates from 35 Virginian counties met in Wheeling to consider a separation of the western counties from the state of Virginia.

Union Organisation

USA: Major-General of Ohio Militia George Brinton McClellan arrived to command the Department of the Ohio.

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

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

CSA: Indian Territory was established as a military organisation, comprising the Indian Territory or approximately the area of the later state of Oklahoma. Some Indian nations aligned with the Confederacy and others with the Union, while others remained neutral or switched sides when expedient.
CSA: Brigadier-General Benjamin McCulloch assumed command of the Indian Territory.

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

Indian Territory: Benjamin McCulloch

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