May 17 1861 Friday
North Carolina Admitted to the Confederacy
Tennessee Admitted to the Confederacy
USA. The Coast Blockading Squadron of the US Navy was re-designated as the Atlantic Blockading Squadron, remaining under the command of Captain Silas Horton Stringham. At this time there were only fourteen ships assigned to the squadron. By the acquisition and arming of civilian vessels, the Atlantic Blockading Squadron grew quickly to about three times its original allocated strength. The Squadron initially included four 1st Rate vessels USS Minnesota Screw Frigate (Squadron Flagship), USS Roanoke Screw Frigate, USS Wabash Screw Frigate, and USS Susquehanna Side-wheel Frigate. There were eight 2nd Rate vessels USS Brandywine Sailing Frigate (store ship at Hampton Roads), USS Congress Sailing Frigate, USS Cumberland Sailing Frigate, USS St Lawrence Sailing Frigate, USS Sabine Sailing Frigate, USS Savannah Sailing Frigate, USS Pawnee Screw Sloop and USS Quaker City Side-wheel Gunboat. There were six 3rd Rate vessels USS Iroquois 3rd Rate Screw Sloop, USS Seminole 3rd Rate Screw Sloop, USS Jamestown Sailing Sloop, USS Cambridge Screw Gunboat, USS Flag Screw Gunboat and USS Harriet Lane Side-wheel Gunboat from US Revenue Cutter Service. There were also 32 4th Rate vessels USS Dale Sailing Sloop, USS Vandalia Sailing Sloop, USS Albatross Screw Gunboat, USS Dawn Screw Gunboat, USS Daylight Screw Gunboat, USS Louisiana Screw Gunboat, USS Monticello Screw Gunboat, USS Mount Vernon Screw Gunboat, USS Penguin Screw Gunboat, USS Pocahontas Screw Gunboat, USS R B Forbes Screw Gunboat, USS Stars and Stripes Screw Gunboat, USS Valley City Screw Gunboat, USS Ceres Side-wheel Gunboat, USS John L Lockwood Side-wheel Gunboat, USS Thomas Freeborn Side-wheel Gunboat, USS Underwriter Side-wheel Gunboat, USS Union Screw Auxiliary, USS Young Rover Screw Auxiliary, USS Adelaide Side-wheel Auxiliary Transport, USS Cohasset Screw Tug, USS Reliance Screw Tug, USS Rescue Screw Tug, USS Resolute Screw Tug, USS Young America, Screw Tug (captured from the Confederates on 24 April 1861 in Hampton Roads), USS General William G Putnam Side-wheel Tug, USS Yankee Side-wheel Tug, USS Ben Morgan Sailing Hospital Ship, USS Charles Phelps Sailing Coal Ship, USS Perry, Sailing Brig, USS Gemsbok Sailing Bark and USS Release Sailing Bark Store Ship.
USA. The Union Flying Flotilla (or Potomac Flotilla) was being formed by Commander James H Ward who had departed for the Chesapeake from the New York Navy Yard on 16 May 1861. Although it operated within the area of the Atlantic Blockading Squadron, Ward’s flotilla acted independently under the direct orders of the Navy Department, although there was frequent transfer of vessels between the commands.
USA. The Union Army experienced its first substantial increase in the General Officer corps. As recently as 13 May 1861, there were still only one Major-General and three Brigadier-Generals in the US Regular Army. As the number of regiments mustering into the US Volunteers accelerated, the need for brigade and division commanders grew. Over the following four days, two new Major-Generals and five new Brigadier-Generals were appointed to the Regular Army. In addition, the first three Major-Generals and thirty-four Brigadier-Generals were confirmed as Brigadier-Generals in the US Volunteers. This amounted to an expansion from four to forty-eight general officers in four days.
Not all of the Brigadier-Generals USV were confirmed immediately and, in fact, only Nathaniel Lyon and Jacob Dolson Cox were confirmed on their day of nomination. Both were already actively engaged in operations, Lyon in Missouri and Cox in western Virginia. The others were in the process of concentrating and forming their brigades or awaiting commands. The prominent politician Edward Dickinson Baker declined his promotion to General but nevertheless acted as a brigade commander. Of these thirty-four Brigadier-Generals USV, twenty were subsequently promoted to Major-General and one became the only Lieutenant-General appointed during the war. They provided the original core of command for the first year of the growing Union Army. Two would be killed in action (N Lyon and P Kearny), one died of wounds (I B Richardson, and two died during the war (F W Lander and J Cooper).
North Carolina. The Confederate Congress passed an act permitting the admission, under certain specified conditions, of North Carolina to the Confederate States.
Tennessee. The Confederate Congress passed an act permitting the admission, under certain specified conditions, of Tennessee to the Confederate States.
Virginia. USS Minnesota, Captain Silas Horton Stringham, captured the bark Star en route from Richmond to Bremen in Germany.
Union Organisation
USA: The Coast Blockading Squadron of the US Navy was discontinued and renamed the Atlantic Blockading Squadron of the US Navy.
USA: The Atlantic Blockading Squadron of the US Navy was established from the renamed Coast Blockading Squadron of the US Navy.
USA: Captain Silas Horton Stringham USN assumed command of the Atlantic Blockading Squadron of the US Navy.
USA: Joseph King Fenno Mansfield was promoted Brigadier-General USA 17 May 1861 to rank from 14 May 1861.
USA: Samuel Peter Heintzelman promoted Brigadier-General USV 27 May 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: David Hunter promoted Brigadier-General USV 7 August 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: Erasmus Darwin Keyes promoted Brigadier-General USV 7 August 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: Andrew Porter promoted Brigadier-General USV 6 August 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: Fitz-John Porter promoted Brigadier-General USV 7 August 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: William Buel Franklin promoted Brigadier-General USV 6 August 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: William Tecumseh Sherman promoted Brigadier-General USV 3 August 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: Charles Pomeroy Stone promoted Brigadier-General USV 6 August 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: Don Carlos Buell promoted Brigadier-General USV 7 August 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: Thomas West Sherman promoted Brigadier-General USV 6 August 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: Nathaniel Lyon promoted Brigadier-General USV 17 May 1861.
USA: John Pope promoted Brigadier-General USV 14 June 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: George Archibald McCall promoted Brigadier-General USV 7 August 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: William Reading Montgomery promoted Brigadier-General USV 9 August 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: Philip Kearny promoted Brigadier-General USV 7 August 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: John Wolcott Phelps promoted Brigadier-General USV 9 August 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: Joseph Hooker promoted Brigadier-General USV 6 August 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: Ulysses Simpson Grant promoted Brigadier-General USV 9 August 1861 to rank from May 17 1861.
USA: Joseph Jones Reynolds promoted Brigadier-General USV 14 June 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: Samuel Ryan Curtis promoted Brigadier-General USV 7 August 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: Charles Smith Hamilton promoted Brigadier-General USV 7 August 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: Darius Nash Couch promoted Brigadier-General USV 9 August 1861 to rank from 17 May 17 1861.
USA: Rufus King promoted Brigadier-General USV 7 August 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: Jacob Dolson Cox promoted Brigadier-General USV 17 May 1861.
USA: Stephen Augustus Hurlbut promoted Brigadier-General USV 14 June 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: Franz Sigel promoted Brigadier-General USV 7 August 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: Robert Cumming Schenck promoted Brigadier-General USV 5 June 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: Benjamin Mayberry Prentiss promoted Brigadier-General USV 9 August 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: Frederick West Lander promoted Brigadier-General USV 6 August 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: Benjamin Franklin Kelley promoted Brigadier-General USV 6 August 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: John Alexander McClernand promoted Brigadier-General USV 6 August 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: Alpheus Starkey Williams promoted Brigadier-General USV 9 August 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: Israel Bush Richardson promoted Brigadier-General USV 9 August 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: James Cooper promoted Brigadier-General USV 12 August 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861.
USA: Edward Dickinson Baker promoted Brigadier-General 31 July 1861 to rank from 17 May 1861 but declined.
Commander in Chief: President Abraham Lincoln
Vice-President: Hannibal Hamlin
Secretary of War: Simon Cameron
Secretary of the Navy: Gideon Welles
Atlantic Blockading Squadron: Silas Horton Stringham
Gulf Blockading Squadron: William Mervine
Pacific Squadron: John Berrien Montgomery
Western Gunboat Flotilla: John Rodgers
Potomac Flotilla: James Harmon Ward
General–in-Chief: Winfield Scott
Department of Annapolis: John Adams Dix
Department of the East: John Ellis Wool
Department of Florida: Harvey Brown
Department of New Mexico: Edward Richard Sprigg Canby
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. James H North became the Confederate Naval Agent in Europe, serving in that role until April 1865.
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 interim, Joseph Eggleston Johnston awaited
“Forces in Norfolk”: Walter Gwynn
Forces in Richmond: John Bankhead Magruder
Forces in the Kanawha Valley: Christopher Quarles Tompkins
Union Generals
Note: Italics, awaiting confirmation of the commission
Major-General USA
Winfield Scott
George Brinton McClellan
John Charles Frémont
Major-General USV
John Adams Dix
Nathaniel Prentiss Banks
Benjamin Franklin Butler
Brigadier-General USA
John Ellis Wool
William Selby Harney
Edwin Vose Sumner
Joseph King Fenno Mansfield
Irvin McDowell
Robert Anderson
William Starke Rosecrans
Brigadier-General USV
Samuel Peter Heintzelman
David Hunter
Erasmus Darwin Keyes
Andrew Porter
Fitz-John Porter
William Buel Franklin
William Tecumseh Sherman
Charles Pomeroy Stone
Don Carlos Buell
Thomas West Sherman
Nathaniel Lyon
John Pope
George Archibald McCall
William Reading Montgomery
Philip Kearny
Joseph Hooker
John Wolcott Phelps
Ulysses Simpson Grant
Joseph Jones Reynolds
Samuel Ryan Curtis
Charles Smith Hamilton
Darius Nash Couch
Rufus King
Jacob Dolson Cox
Stephen Augustus Hurlbut
Franz Sigel
Robert Cumming Schenck
Benjamin Mayberry Prentiss
Frederick West Lander
Benjamin Franklin Kelley
John Alexander McClernand
Alpheus Starkey Williams
Israel Bush Richardson
James Cooper
Brigadier-General USA (Staff)
Montgomery Cunningham Meigs
Confederate Generals
Note: Italics, awaiting confirmation of the commission
General ACSA
Samuel Cooper
Major-General PACS
David Emanuel Twiggs
Brigadier-General ACSA
Robert Edward Lee
Joseph Eggleston Johnston
Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard
Braxton Bragg
Brigadier-General PACS
Alexander Robert Lawton
Milledge Lake Bonham
Benjamin McCulloch
American Civil War High Command 