1861 May 20th

May 20 1861 Monday

North Carolina Seceded

Chesapeake Bay Blockade

CSA. The Confederate Provisional Congress voted to adjourn and to move the Capital of the Confederacy from Montgomery, Alabama, to Richmond, Virginia. Congress resolved to resume its session on 20 July 1861.

CSA. The Confederate Marine Corps was expanded to the size of a regiment following an act of the Provisional Congress. The force was authorized to consist of 1,000 men.

USA. The US government announced the seizure of control of telegraph offices, equipment, and archived dispatches throughout the United States.

District of Columbia. Commander James Harmon Ward USN arrived at the Washington Navy Yard aboard his flagship, USS Thomas Freeborn, to activate the “Flying Flotilla” or Potomac Flotilla. The designation of “Flying Flotilla” was dropped when Ward’s force arrived in the theatre of operations and the force was referred to by a variety of names, such as the Potomac River Flotilla or Potomac Blockade, or Flotilla in the Chesapeake. In early August 1861, the commander and the Navy Department began to consistently refer to the command as the Potomac Flotilla.

District of Columbia. The garrison of Fort McHenry was reinforced. It was never seriously threatened by local secessionists and became the headquarters of the Department of the East in July 1861.

Florida. USS Crusader, Lieutenant Thomas A Craven USN, landed a party and occupied Neptune near Fort Zachary Taylor.

Kentucky. Kentucky Governor Beriah Magoffin issued a proclamation of neutrality.

Maryland. Union forces in Baltimore seized a store of 1,600 muskets and 4,000 pikes that were at risk of capture by secessionist agitators..

Maryland. State Major-General George Cadwalader took command of the Union camp at Federal Hill near Baltimore.

North Carolina. The North Carolina Convention met, ratified the Confederate Constitution, and passed an Ordinance of Secession. North Carolina eventually contributed 125,000 soldiers to the Confederacy, despite some sections in the west of the state having a strong pro-Union and anti-slavery sentiment. The state came to lead the South in blockade-running and provided a significant proportion of supplies to the Confederate armies. The secession of North Carolina left only four slave-holding states officially outside the Confederacy: the so-called Border States of Missouri, Delaware, Maryland, and Kentucky. North Carolina was the eleventh state to secede.

Pennsylvania. The prize ship General Parkhill was brought into Philadelphia by a prize crew from the USS Niagara.

Texas. Fort Duncan was abandoned by the US Army. Fort Duncan was established to protect the first American settlement on the Rio Grande near the present-day town of Eagle Pass. It was one of a line of seven army posts built after the Mexican War to protect West Texas, which included Fort Worth, Fort Graham, Fort Gates, Fort Croghan, Fort Martin Scott, Fort Lincoln, and Fort Duncan. Fort Duncan was established on 27 March 1849 by Captain Sidney Burbank and companies A, B, and F of the 1st US Infantry. On 14 November 1849, the post was named after Colonel James Duncan. Fort Duncan provided protection from border outlaws and became a base for scouting Native Americans. The fort was abandoned in May 1859 and then reoccupied in March 1860 during the Cortina Troubles. When US Brigadier-General David Emanuel Twiggs ordered the fort to be evacuated on 21 February 1861, Major William Henry French successfully evacuated three companies of artillery from Fort Duncan and two from Fort Brown to Fort Jefferson and Fort Zachary Taylor in Florida. The Confederates garrisoned the fort with volunteers and Texas Rangers, renaming it Rio Grande Station. It became an important port for the export of cotton into Mexico. US Army troops did not reoccupy Fort Duncan until 23 March 1868.

Union Organisation

USA: The Potomac Flotilla of the US Navy was established.
USA: Commander James Harmon Ward assumed command of the Potomac Flotilla of the US Navy

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: William Wing Loring was promoted Brigadier-General PACS 20 May 1861.

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
William Wing Loring