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.
Exploring the most important 55 months in American history
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.
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.
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.
OTD 165 YEARS AGO: Virginians react to President Lincoln’s militia proclamation by voting to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy.
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.
OTD 165 YEARS AGO: President Lincoln issues a proclamation calling on 75,000 volunteers to join their state militias to help force the Confederate states back into the Union. He also calls for a special session of Congress to assemble on July 4 in an effort to unite northern Republicans and Democrats against the Confederacy.