May 6 1861 Monday
Arkansas Seceded
Camp Jackson Operations
Great Britain. Great Britain decided to recognize the Confederacy as a belligerent, but not as an independent sovereign nation.
USA. The Gulf Blockading Squadron was formed to patrol the Confederate coasts from Key West to the Mexican border. The squadron became the largest Union fleet in operation for most of the war. It was divided later into the East and West Gulf Blockading Squadrons for greater efficiency.
CSA. The Confederate Congress passed an Act recognising a state of war with the United States of America and authorised the issuing of Letters of Marque to private vessels, with provisions for prizes and prize goods. President Jefferson Finis Davis issued detailed instructions to these armed “privateers”.
Arkansas. The state government of Arkansas at Little Rock passed an Ordinance of Secession by a vote of 69 to 1. Arkansas authorized its delegates to the Provisional Congress to transfer the arsenal at Little Rock and the hospital at Napoleon to the control of the Confederate government.
Maryland. Commissioners Otho Scott, Robert M McLane, and William J Ross reported the results of their interview with US President Abraham Lincoln, expressing the opinion that some modifications of the course of the US government towards Maryland ought to be expected.
Maryland. State Brigadier-General Benjamin Franklin Butler and the 8th New York took possession of the Relay House, nine miles south of Baltimore, at the vital junction of the Baltimore, Washington, and Ohio railroads.
Missouri. The pro-secession Governor of Missouri Claiborne Fox Jackson made efforts to make the state turn to the Confederacy at a state convention but this had been foiled. He planned with the pro-Confederate Brigadier-General of Missouri Militia Daniel Marsh Frost to seize the Union arsenal at St Louis. Frost’s small brigade of militia encamped at Lindell Grove on the outskirts of St Louis which was named Camp Jackson, which was turned into a training camp for new recruits. The Police Commissioners of St Louis demanded that US Army Captain Nathaniel Lyon remove all Federal troops from all locations beyond the US Arsenal.
Tennessee. The Tennessee state legislature in secret session ratified by a vote of 66 to 25 the league entered into by A O W Totten, Gustavus A Henry, Washington Barrow, the Commissioners for Tennessee, and Henry W Hilliard, Commissioner for the Confederate States. Their pact stipulated that until Tennessee became a member of the Confederacy it should place the State’s entire military force under the control of the Confederate States, and thereby turned over to the Confederate States all public property, naval stores, and munitions of war. Also passed were a Declaration of Independence and an ordinance dissolving the relations between Tennessee and the United States, and an ordinance adopting and ratifying the Confederate Constitution. These latter two issues were to be put to a vote on by the people of Tennessee on 8 June 1861. The state of Tennessee thus formed an alliance with the Confederacy as an independent state but did not formally secede on this date.
Union Organisation
USA: The Gulf Blockading Squadron of the US Navy was established to patrol the coasts west of the southern extremity of Florida as far as the Mexican border.
USA: Captain William Mervine USN assumed command of the Gulf Blockading Squadron of the US Navy.
Mervine, William / Born 14 March 1791 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania / Died Utica, New York 15 September 1868
Midshipman USN 16 January 1809 / Lieutenant USN 4 February 1815 / Master Commandant USN 12 June 1834 / Captain USN 8 September 1841 / Retired USN 21 December 1861 / Commodore USN Retired 21 December 1861 / Rear Admiral USN Retired 25 July 1866 / WIA Niagara River 28 November 1812
USS Colorado May 1861 / Gulf Blockading Squadron 8 June 1861-18 September 1861 / USS Mississippi June 1861 / USS Colorado July 1861 / USS Rhode Island September 1861
USA: The patrol of the Coast Blockading Squadron of the US Navy was redefined as the coasts from the Chesapeake Bay southwards to the eastern and northern coasts of Florida.
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: Edmund Brooke Alexander temporary
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 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
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 