May 8 1861 Wednesday
Camp Jackson Operations
CSA. The Confederate Congress voted for 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, to avoid 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.
Magruder, John Bankhead / Virginia / Born 1 May 1807 Port Royal, Virginia / Died Houston, Texas 18 February 1871
USMA 1 July 1830 15/42 Infantry / Cadet USMA 1 July 1826 / 2nd Lieutenant USA 7th US Infantry 1 July 1830 / 1st US Artillery 11 August 1831 / 1st Lieutenant USA 31 March 1836 / Captain USA 18 June 1846 / Resigned USA 20 April 1861 / Colonel Provisional Army of Virginia 9 May 1861 / Colonel PACS Artillery 16 May 1861 / Brigadier-General PACS 17 June 1861 / Major-General PACS 7 October 1861 / No Record of Parole / Brevet 2nd Lieutenant USA 1 July 1830 Brevet Major USA 18 April 1847 Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel USA 13 September 1847 / Major-General Mexican Imperial Army/ WIA Chapultepec 13 September 1847
Forces in Richmond 8 May 1861-21 May 1861 / Hampton Line 21 May 1861-26 May 1861 / Department of the Peninsula 26 May 1861-31 May 1861 / Army of the Peninsula 26 May 1861-31 May 1861 / Department of the Peninsula 17 June 1861-12 April 1862 / Army of the Peninsula 17 June 1861-12 April 1862 / Magruder’s Division Army of Northern Virginia 12 April 1862-May 1862 / Reserve Northern Virginia 4 May 1862-25 June 1862 / Magruder’s Command Northern Virginia 25 June 1862-14 July 1862 / District of Texas 10 October 1862-27 November 1862 / District of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona 29 November 1862-4 August 1864 / District of Arkansas 4 August 1864-28 January 1865 / II Corps Trans-Mississippi 4 August 1864-31 March 1865 / District of Arkansas 31 January 1865-14 February 1865 / District of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona 20 March 1865-26 May 1865
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.
Loring, William Wing / North Carolina-Florida / Born 4 December 1818 Wilmington, North Carolina / Died 30 December 1886
Private Florida Militia 1832 / Sergeant Florida Militia 1835 / 2nd Lieutenant USV Florida Infantry 16 June 1837 / Mustered Out USV 16 August 1837 / Captain USA US Mounted Rifles 27 May 1846 / Major USA 16 February 1847 / Lieutenant-Colonel USA 15 March 1848 / Colonel US 30 December 1856 / Resigned USA 13 May 1861 / Colonel ACSA Infantry 16 March 1861 / Brigadier-General PACS 20 May 1861 / Major-General PACS 15 February 1862 to rank from 17 February 1862 / Paroled Greensboro, North Carolina 1 May 1865 / Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel USA 20 August 1847 Brevet Colonel USA 13 September 1847 WIA Churubusco 20 August 1847 WIA Chapultepec 13 September 1847 WIA Ezra Church 28 July 1864
Department of New Mexico 22 January 1861-11 June 1861 / Department of Southwestern Virginia 8 May 1861-16 October 1862 / Army of the Northwest 20 July 1861-26 January 1862 / I Corps Mississippi 15 December 1862-20 May 1863 / Loring’s Division Western Department 20 May 1863-4 July 1863 / Loring’s Division Department Mississippi and East Louisiana 4 July 1863-28 January 1864 / Loring’s Division Department of Alabama Mississippi and East Louisiana 28 January 1864-4 May 1864 / Loring’s Division III Corps Army of Tennessee 4 May 1864-14 June 1864 / III Corps Army of Tennessee 14 June 1864-23 June 1864 / Loring’s Division III Corps Army of Tennessee 7 July 1864-28 July 1864 / III Corps Tennessee 14 June 1864-28 July 1864 / Loring’s Division III Corps Army of Tennessee September 1864-March 1865 / Loring’s Division III Corps Army of Tennessee 9 April 1865-26 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
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
American Civil War High Command 