Episodes Nearest to February 16, 1861: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. Military troops in San Antonio surrender Federal property
    date February 16, 1861map BEXAR, Texastags War

    Early in the year rumors and tensions about secession began to spread throughout the nation, but were mainly focused in the South. As one New York Times reporter stated, “There are rumors that a body of men are moving on San Antonio to take the arsenal there. Gen. Twiggs has called in the troops to protect it.' (The New York Times, January 31, 1861, p. 1) General Twiggs promptly moved...

  2. The Beginning of the End
    date February 15, 1861map BALTIMORE CITY, Marylandtags Politics

    The inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, the beginning of a new presidential term and a new era, would be the end of the old Union. According to historian William Freehling, "none of Lincoln's 26,375 southern votes came from the Lower South and only 1887 from the Middle South (all in extreme northwestern Virginia)." Lincoln kept quiet between the time of his election and the delivery of his inaugural...

  3. How Shall They Be Remembered?
    date February 20, 1861 to February 25, 1861map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Veterans, American Revolution, Civil War, Abraham Lincoln

    During the years of his term in office, President Lincoln read two letters that were to remind him of how our nation was forged.  Abraham Lincoln, like most other presidents, received letters giving him praise and thanks for all the work he had done.  Abraham Lincoln also received mail detailing news from the battle front and giving support from the home front.  Two of those letters focused more...

  4. Encouraging the Troops
    date March 1, 1861map WAKE, North Carolinatags Arts/Leisure, War

    Support and encouragement of the Confederate troops in the Civil War took many different forms, including letters in newspapers, poetry, and songs. At the beginning of the war, it was important to build up the troops for their initial engagements with the Union Army, expressed by supporters as the need to wake from a dream-like state. In the song North Carolina: A Call to Arms, the author...

  5. The Virginia (Secession) Convention of 1861
    date January 12, 1861 to April, 1861map ALBEMARLE, Virginiatags Government, Politics, Slavery

    The large body of men from Albemarle County quickly came to a unanimous decision about who they would nominate to hold their county's seat at the Virginia Convention of 1861. They truly believed that the questions so long pending between the North and the South must be settled. They chose to nominate William C. Rives and V.W Southall to represent Albemarle County at the state convention. Rives...

  6. Confederate Congress adopts a constitution
    date March 11, 1861map MONTGOMERY, Alabamatags Race-Relations, Slavery

    The Confederate Constitution was adopted by the Confederacy in opposition to the Union and the United States Constitution. The prominent differences between the two were that the Confederate Constitution sought different guarantees of states' rights and protected slavery as an institution. Members of the convention held in Montgomery made it their goal to create a constitution for the southern...

  7. Reactions to Lincoln's Inauguration
    date March, 1861map MOBILE, Alabamatags Government, Politics, Slavery, War

    Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4, 1861. One month earlier, Jefferson Davis had been inaugurated as the new president of the Confederacy. Elizabeth Saxon traveled to Montgomery, Alabama to celebrate the inauguration of Davis and then traveled to Mobile when Lincoln was inaugurated. In Mobile, she visited with a good friend and mentor from her childhood, Madame Octavia Walton Invert. Well-educated...

  8. Alabama secedes from the Union and joins the Confederacy
    date January 11, 1861map MONTGOMERY, Alabamatags Slavery, War

    The Alabama Convention convened in Montgomery as delegates arrived to vote on secession. After long debates and delays, the convention voted 61 to 39 in favor of secession. White Alabamans felt threatened by the North and the Republican Party. Alabama was a strong slave state who would suffer great economic loss if the institution of slavery were revoked. “The monetary loss of slave property...

  9. The Revolution of the Immigrant Vote
    date January 8, 1861 to January 9, 1861map AUGUSTA, Virginiatags Government, Politics, Migration/Transportation, Race-Relations

    Political propaganda was not unique to the nineteenth-century South. The Staunton Spectator published an article, in its paper for January 8, 1861, which depicted a French man who, ave loss ma vote The article was published in a broken English-French hybrid language, intended to show that he was indeed a foreigner. The immigrant explained how he had work ver hard tree four months for Messer...

  10. Relief from Crop Devastation
    date March 28, 1861map YAZOO, Mississippitags Agriculture, Health/Death, Economy, Government

    A considerable drought met the residents of central Mississippi during the summer of 1860. A great number of people from counties such as Leake and Attala were left with ruined crops and no other source of economic gain. In many cases both corn and cotton were devastated, leaving a considerable number of people without the means or credit to purchase bread.

    On March 28, 1861, John Pettus...

  11. Furman University's Philosophian Society Discusses Divisive Issues
    date March 22, 1861 to April 5, 1861map GREENVILLE, South Carolinatags Arts/Leisure, Education, Government, Law, Migration/Transportation, Politics, Slavery

    On March 22, 1861 in Philosophian Hall at Furman University, a secretive meeting was called to order. A leather-bound book as tall as a man's forearm with robin's egg blue pages was then opened reverently, and a man's voice read aloud the last meeting's minutes. After he finished, his hand held a pen poised above the first line of a new page, ready to record in flowing script...

  12. The State Seal: A Symbol of Revolution
    date March 30, 1861map YAZOO, Mississippitags Government, Politics, War

    The bird of liberty sat perched on top of a Magnolia, waiting to strike a cautiously approaching serpent that threatened the safety of her nest. This was the symbolic image imbedded onto the enlarged copy of the Mississippi State Seal that W.S. Barry, President of the Mississippi State Convention, sat inspecting on March 20, 1861. It had been three months since the state had made the decision to...

  13. Reverend Wadsworth Challenges His Southern Congregation
    date January 4, 1861map PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvaniatags Church/Religious-Activity

    Early in 1861 citizens of the Arch Street Church examined their lifestyles and made sure that they were in line with God. Reverend Wadsworth gave a sermon to his southern congregation based around the idea of how the 'American' people had come to a point where they needed help from Him to get their lives back to the way that God had intended them to live.

    He talked of how the whole...

  14. David Watson Prepares for Battle
    date December, 1860 to January, 1861map LOUISA, Virginiatags Economy, Government, War

    From December, 1860 to January, 1861 David Watson of Louisa County, Virginia wrote a series of letters back home to his mother. Watson enlisted in the Virginia militia and was writing from several locations, including Charleston, South Carolina at Fort Sumter. Built after the War of 1812 as one of a series of fortifications linking the southeastern coast, Fort Sumter fell on April 13, 1861 to Confederate...

  15. Federal Troops Take Refuge In Fort Sumter
    date December 26, 1860map CHARLESTON, South Carolinatags Government, Politics, War

    At noon on December 26, 1860, two cannon shots sounded throughout Charleston Harbor. Six days earlier, the state of South Carolina seceded from the Union. The gun shots were a pre-arranged signal for the federal troops stationed in Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island, located a few miles from Charleston. Under the command of Major Robert Anderson, the troops heard the signal and began to...

  16. Sumner Takes Command of The Department of The Pacific
    date March 22, 1861 to April 28, 1861map SAN FRANCISCO, Californiatags War, Civil War, Military, Politics

    With hostilities breaking out between Confederate and Union forces in the east, a secessionist uprising in California was feared.  In command of the U.S. Army’s Department of The Pacific, was Col. Albert S. Johnston; an adopted Texan with questionable loyalties. Believing that Johnston posed a risk to Union control in California, General Winfield Scott dispatched Brigadier General E. V. Sumner...

  17. Lincoln fears attack on the Capital and summons troops
    date April 11, 1861map Washington City, District of Columbiatags War

    On April 11th, 1861 President Lincoln stated that he received information and “positive knowledge' of an attack on the city of Washington. He then put a call out for the military and said to “hold them in readiness at a moments warning.' (The Louisville Daily Journal, April 11, 1861, p. 1) The heightened tensions near Fort Sumter, after attempting to supply the fort with provisions,...

  18. The Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter
    date April 12, 1861map CHARLESTON, South Carolinatags Crime/Violence, War

    At 4:30 am on April 12th, 1861, Confederate forces, under the leadership of Brig. General Beauregard, opened fire on Fort Sumter. Two day prior, on April 10th Brig. General Beauregard called for the surrender of Major Robert Anderson and his Union garrison. They refused, thus prompting the batteries to fire upon the fort. Unable to counter the forces by the Confederates effectively, Major Anderson...

  19. Secession
    date December 20, 1860map CHARLESTON, South Carolinatags Government, Politics, War

    On December 17, 1860, a convention formed in the South Carolinian capital of Columbia to debate and confront the single most important decision facing the state since voting on independence from Great Britain over 80 years earlier. As fate would have it, the city of Charleston would be the one to hear the verdict on secession first. We, the People of the State of South Carolina, in Convention assembled,...

  20. Northwestern region of Virginia breaks away from the state
    date April, 1861map ALLEGHANY, Virginiatags Agriculture, Economy, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    Although Virginia decided to secede from the Union, the northwestern counties of the Allegheny region had different beliefs about the state's actions. Three out of every four voters were against the secession. As tensions mounted with the parent state, northern counties formed their own state and broke away from Virginia, allowing them to remain loyal to the Union. The issue of the discontentment...

  21. Virginia secedes from the Union and joins the Confederacy
    date April 17, 1861map HENRICO, Virginiatags War

    Virginia surprisingly had a large number of Union supporters within its borders. During the Virginia Convention, members debated the secession issue with much passion. Members of the convention were summoned to meet with President Lincoln in Washington, D.C. to discuss the matter further, which happened to be right after the bombardment of Fort Sumter. After Lincoln made a call for troops immediately...

  22. Crittenden Attempts to Stave off Secession
    date December 18, 1860map Washington City, District of Columbiatags African-Americans, Slavery, Migration/Transportation, Law

    Prior to the Secession of the Confederate States, many people in the United States wanted a compromise in order to prevent secession and the Civil War that would follow. James McPherson noted that in order for the Senate to filter through the proposed compromises they formed the...

  23. The South's Exciting First Victory
    date April 17, 1861map CHARLESTON, South Carolinatags Civil War, Confederacy

    The newspaper article "Glory Enough for One Day" was written on April 17, 1861. The article describes how the Union surrendered Fort Sumter to the Confederate Army on April 13, 1861. The article starts out by talking about the telegram that announced to the south that Fort Sumter had been surrendered to the Confederate States, and how it "sent a thrill of joy to the heart of every true friend of...

  24. Confederate troops seize Harper's Ferry
    date April 18, 1861map JEFFERSON, Virginiatags War

    Immediately after Virginia's declaration of secession from the Union, Confederate forces began to reinforce their borders and military outposts. Approximately 360 of Virginia's militia men assembled and advanced toward Harper's Ferry. These southern forces seized the United States Armory outpost, machines, and tools. After the Union troops retreated across the Potomac River, the Confederate...

  25. Governor Hicks Sends a Message of Union Loyalty
    date April 18, 1861map BALTIMORE, Marylandtags Government, Politics, War

    As the secession movement began, the Union focused on keeping the key Border states loyal to the nation if war occurred. Most crucial were Kentucky and Maryland, but worrisome was the fact that during the election of 1860, Maryland voted for John Breckinridge just as the Deep South had. Thus, many Unionists believed that Maryland contained large numbers of underground secessionists. One man within...