1861 May 8th

May 8 1861 Wednesday

Camp Jackson Operations

CSA. The Confederate Congress voted for military enlistments to be made for the duration of the war and not for a pre-determined period. A call for 82,000 more volunteers had been issued in April.

Maryland. The steamer Baltic and the USS Constitution prepared to complete the relocation of the US Naval Academy from Maryland, to Newport, Rhode Island, in order to avoid disruption by the civil unrest in Maryland.

Missouri. A consignment of arms sent by Confederate President Jefferson Finis Davis from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, reached the pro-secession militia at Camp Jackson, near St Louis.

Virginia. Virginia State Major Thomas H Williamson, aided by military engineers, began the construction of fortifications at the Aquia Creek landing to protect the terminus of the Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad. The Confederate defences were subsequently strengthened by the addition of a second battery on the bluffs to the south of the confluence of the Aquia Creek with the Potomac River.

Union Organisation

USA: The parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia north of the Kanawha River, north and west of the Greenbrier River, and thence on a line northwest to the southwest boundary of Maryland were transferred from the Union Department of the East to 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 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

CSA: Colonel John Bankhead Magruder assumed command of the Forces in Richmond, succeeding Colonel Joseph Eggleston Johnston.

CSA: The Department of Southwestern Virginia was established, comprising the mountainous regions of southwest Virginia.
CSA: Colonel William Wing Loring assumed command of the Department of Southwestern Virginia.

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

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