May 3 1861 Friday
Great Britain. British Foreign Minister Lord John Russell met informally with a delegation from the Confederate States comprising William L Yancey, Pierre A Rost, and A Dudley Mann. The Confederate diplomats were anxiously seeking diplomatic recognition of the Confederate government but no commitment was made by the British government.
USA. US President Abraham Lincoln called for 42,000 volunteers for three years’ service to restore the Union. He also directed an increase in the suize of the US Regular Army by the formation of eight new three-battalion regiments of infantry (24 companies each) (numbered 11th-18th US Infantry), and one regiment of Regular Army Artillery (5th US Artillery). This raised the Regular Army’s nominal strength to 22,714 men. He also authorised the enlistment of 18,000 seamen for the US Navy.
Indian Territory. Fort Arbuckle and Fort Cobb in the Chickasaw Nation were abandoned by the US Army.
Fort Arbuckle was constructed in 1850 to counter raids by Plains Indian tribes on immigrant trains heading west to California and on the settlements of Choctaw and Chickasaw nations in Indian Territory. Captain Randolph Barnes Marcy was assigned to select the site and oversee the construction of the fort, which was named after the recently deceased General Matthew Arbuckle. The site was inside the boundary of the Chickasaw Nation and on the bank of the Washita River, six miles west and one mile north of the present town of Davis, Oklahoma. The overall size of the post originally measured 12 miles by 12 miles, allowing space for friendly tribes to camp under the protection of the post. Marcy and his men constructed a rectangular fort with barracks on opposite sides and the quartermaster and commissary facilities at opposite ends. Eventually, the fort consisted of thirty buildings constructed of hewn logs, with stone chimneys. Major William Hemlsey Emory of the First Cavalry was appointed commander of both Fort Arbuckle and Fort Washita in 1858. He found that the buildings were in a poor state of repair; ordnance stores were depleted; and surplus ammunition and gunpowder had to be buried for weather protection. Before the troops could remedy these faults he was ordered to build another fort named Fort Cobb.
Fort Cobb was established by Emory in October 1859 in the present Caddo County in 1859. It was located on the west side of Pond Creek, near its confluence with the Washita River. The fort was named in honor of Howell Cobb, then Secretary of the Treasury with a purpose to protect relocated Native Americans from raids by the Comanche, Kiowa, and Cheyenne.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, the garrison at Fort Cobb comprised four companies of Federal troops. Emory ordered two companies to Fort Washita while the other two remained at Fort Cobb. Fort Washita was occupied by Confederate troops from Texas on 17 April 1861. On the same day, orders from Washington, DC, directed all Federal troops in the Indian Territory to march to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Emory received the order while marching to Fort Cobb. On 3 May 1861, Emory ordered the three forts under his command to be evacuated and the troops were sent to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.
Although Fort Arbuckle was briefly occupied by Confederate troops, it played no part in the war. Fort Cobb was occupied by a small contingent of Confederate troops under William C Young and Indian Agent Mathew Leeper. In May 1861, Colonel Young made a “peace treaty” with the native tribes around the fort, promising them the same protections that they had with the US government. No official treaty was made with the tribal chiefs until Albert Pike, the Confederate Commissioner for Indian Affairs, arrived to sign the treaties with the chiefs on 12 August 1861. Relations soured after the Confederate government showed it was unable to keep its promises. Many Native Americans, fearing reprisals, moved away from Fort Cobb to live in Kansas until the Civil War ended. About thirty men from tribes allied to the Confederacy were recruited to the Confederate Army and armed to guard the fort in 1862. No regular troops were assigned until May 1862. They collected and guarded the abandoned supplies into the summer but left the fort in August 1862.
Missouri. Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson sent a message to the legislature, advising the arming of the state and recommending a sympathetic attitude towards the Confederate slave-holding states.
Virginia. Governor John Letcher of Virginia issued a call for additional volunteers to strengthen the defence of the state.
Union Organisation
USA: The Department of the Ohio was established, comprising the states of Illinois, Ohio, and Indiana, transferred from the Department of the East.
USA: Major-General of Ohio Militia George Brinton McClellan was appointed to command the Department of the Ohio, arriving on 13 May 1861.
Commander in Chief: President Abraham Lincoln
Vice-President: Hannibal Hamlin
Secretary of War: Simon Cameron
Secretary of the Navy: Gideon Welles
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 awaited
- 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: Edmund Brooke Alexander temporary
Confederate Organisation
CSA: The Forces in the Kanawha Valley was established, comprising forces recruited in western Virginia.
CSA: Colonel of Virginia Militia Christopher Quarles Tompkins assumed command of the Forces in the Kanawha Valley.
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 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: Joseph Eggleston Johnston
Forces in the Kanawha Valley: Christopher Quarles Tompkins
Union Generals
Note: Italics, awaiting confirmation of the commission
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
American Civil War High Command 