President Lincoln’s call for volunteers is enthusiastically answered but getting them to Washington is another matter. This leads to chaos in the capital, where fears of a Confederate attack heighten.
Category: Military
Destroying What I Cannot Defend
OTD 165 YEARS AGO: Virginians seize the important military arsenal at Harpers Ferry after retreating Federals fail to destroy it completely.
Federals Abandon a Vital Naval Base
OTD 165 YEARS AGO: Virginia militia seize the Gosport Navy Yard at Norfolk after Federals abandon the vital naval base with controversial haste.
President Lincoln’s Blockade Proclamation
OTD 165 YEARS AGO: President Abraham Lincoln issues an order imposing a naval blockade on ports in the Confederate states. This is intended to prevent supplies from reaching the Confederacy, despite lacking legal basis since he did not recognize the Confederacy as a foreign nation.
The Streets Became a Battleground
OTD 165 YEARS AGO: The first blood of the war is drawn when Federal troops traveling through Baltimore fire on a jeering mob, sparking mass unrest.
An Electric Shock Throughout the Land
OTD 165 YEARS AGO: The fall of Fort Sumter and Abraham Lincoln’s militia proclamation sparks a surge of patriotism and mass mobilizations in both North and South.