150 Years Ago This Week

With the fall of Fort Henry in Tennessee on Thursday, Feb. 6, Gen. Albert S. Johnston, in command of Confederate troops in the western theatre of war, hurried available troops in Kentucky to Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River.
Read More »

Two letters dated Feb. 14, 1861, and addressed to President James Buchanan were delayed in transit, and delivered to President Lincoln almost a year later. The letters were from the King of Siam (today’s Thailand); one letter accompanied royal gifts of a costly sword, a photograph of the king and his daughter, and two...
Read More »

The Confederate government on Sunday, Jan. 26, ordered Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard from the Potomac District in northern Virginia to the west, where he became second-in-command to Gen. Albert S. Johnston in that threatened area. This left Gen. Joseph E. Johnston (no relation to Gen. Albert Johnston) in full command in Virginia. Frustrated by months...
Read More »

Saturday, Jan. 11: a fleet of some 100 vessels carrying Federal troops under Brig. Gen. Ambrose Burnside sailed from Hampton Roads, Va., for the coast of North Carolina. The naval squadron of about 15,000 commanded by Commodore Louis Goldsborough posed a new threat to the already severely intruded Southern coast. In Washington, President Lincoln accepted the public...
Read More »

Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s Confederate troops, moving from Bath in western Virginia, on Sunday, Jan. 5, in pursuit of Federal troops halted on the Potomac River across from Hancock, Md. For two days they bombarded Federal troops garrisoned in Hancock. Brig. Gen. Frederick Lander refused Jackson’s demands for surrender, and the Confederates searched unsuccessfully...
Read More »

December 1861 Tensions between the United States and Great Britain over the Trent affair were high as Christmas week in 1861 dawned. In Washington on Dec. 23, Lord Lyons, the British ambassador, conferred again with Secretary of State Seward. Lyons formally and officially presented the British note demanding the surrender of Confederate commissioners Mason...
Read More »

The first winter of the War was upon the people North and South, as the last month of 1861 opened. The conflict, which everyone expected to be over before the end of the Summer, now seemed to be dragging on. On Sunday, Dec. 1, President Lincoln asked some pointed questions about a possible forward movement of...
Read More »

Forces of the United States landed on Tybee Island, Georgia, on the Savannah River, on Sunday, Nov. 24. Federals now controlled the entrance to the harbor and gained a foothold for an attack on Ft. Pulaski, the brick fortification designed to protect the city of Savannah. There was skirmishing this day at Lancaster and...
Read More »

On Sunday, Nov. 10, President Jefferson Davis wrote to Gen. Joseph E. Johnston at Manassas that he was surprised the Army had shown so little increase since July, but that “we are restricted in our capacity to reinforce by want of arms.”
Read More »

In the Shenandoah Valley Nov. 4, Maj. Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson assumed command of the new Shenandoah Valley District with headquarters at Winchester, soon to be the scene of his greatest triumphs.
Read More »

Confederates commanded by Brig. Gen. Nathan Evans on Monday, Oct. 21, stopped a badly coordinated attempt by Union forces under Brig. Gen. Charles Stone to cross the Potomac River at Harrison’s Island and capture Leesburg. Forces numbered about 1,700 on each side. A timely Confederate counterattack, in which Col. William Barksdale of the 13th Mississippi established...
Read More »

Sharp fighting on Sunday, Oct. 13, near Henrytown, Missouri, resulted in the dispersal of a Confederate scouting party intent on raiding Federal communications between St. Louis and Springfield.  Another skirmish occurred at Cotton Hill in western Virginia.  Brig. Gen. Thomas Williams superceded Brig. Gen. Joseph K.F. Mansfield in Federal command in North Carolina.  The...
Read More »

On Saturday, April 13, Major Anderson surrendered Fort Sumter to General Beauregard’s forces. A white flag replaced the Stars and Stripes on the fort’s flagpole at 2.30 p.m. It was agreed that the formal surrender would take place the following day. Some 4,000 shells had been fired from both sides but no casualties sustained,...
Read More »

The line is drawn in the sand President Lincoln was still much involved in making Federal appointments, compiling lists and writing memoranda as the month of April opened. He signed an order to fit out the U.S.S. Powhatan on the advice of Secretary of State Seward to go to sea at the earliest possible...
Read More »

March 1861 Federal troops occupied both Fort Pickens in Pensacola, Fla. and Fort Sumter in Charleston, S.C. Both states were a part of the Confederate States, and neither could abide having a Federal military installation within their borders. On Tuesday, March 26, President Lincoln met with his Cabinet in Washington on the issues of...
Read More »