R o c k y M o u n t
a
i
n
s(^) Sn
ake River
(^) Co
lorado River
P A C I F I C O C E A N
San Francisco
Santa Fe
Sacramento
Portland
Virginia
City
Salt Lake City
CALIFORNIA
OREGON
COLORADO
TERRITORY
WASHINGTON
TERRITORY
UTAH
TERRITORY
NEW MEXICO
TERRITORY
NEVADA
TERRITORY
CANADA
MEXICO
espite last-ditch attempts to work out a political compromise,
the first months of 1861 saw a steady disintegration of
relations between North and South and between the political leaders
of the two sections. By early February, seven states had seceded
from the Union and taken steps toward establishing the Confederacy.
President Abraham Lincoln continued to maintain that conflict was
unnecessary, but the reality was that positions were hardening every
day. Across the South, the seceded states started taking over Federal
outposts. Not surprisingly, one of these confrontations between
Southern forces and troops loyal to the Union erupted in violence—at
Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, on April 12.
With the nation’s small prewar armed forces divided between the
two sections, neither at first had the means to fight the other on
any significant scale. Both sides began assembling volunteer armies
D
SECESSION TRIGGERS WAR
First major battle
Manassas, near Washington
D.C., is the scene of the first
major land battle, known to
the Union as Bull Run. Here,
a wrecked wagon blocks the
road of the retreating Union
army, panic sets in, and
defeat becomes a rout.
Union troops attacked in Baltimore
Pro-secession feeling in Baltimore,
Maryland, leads to clashes with troops
passing through from New York to
Washington on April 19. In Maryland
and Delaware, slavery is permitted.
Lincoln’s firm response to the event
persuades the two states to remain
within the Union.
Call to arms in the South
This Confederate poster of
May 1861 calls for local
volunteers in Tennessee to
fight in the “Yankee War.” It
proposes to raise “an infantry
company to be offered to the
Government as part of the
defense of the state and of
the Confederate States.”
EASTERN THEATER
Ma
tta
po
ni
Riv
er
James R
iver
Rapp
aha
nn
oc
k (^) R
ive
r
Po
to
ma
c (^) R
ive
r
James (^) R
iver
Sh
en
an
do
ah^ Riv
er
C
h
e
sa
p
e
a
k
e
B
ay
A
T
L
A
N
T
I
C
O
C
E
A
N
A
p
p
a
la
c
h
ia
n
M
o
u
n
ta
in
s
NORTH CAROLINA
Cape Charles
Cape Henry
York River
Delaware
Bay
NEW
JERSEY
DELAWARE
MARYLAND
PENNSYLVANIA
VIRGINIA
DISTRICT OF
COLUMBIA
Hampton
Portsmouth
Roanoke
Charlottesville
Petersburg
Harrisonburg
Fredericksburg
Lynchburg
Harpers Ferry
Manassas
Centreville
Baltimore
Richmond
Philadelphia
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Winchester
States remaining in the Union
States seceding to form the Confederacy
U.S. Territories
Slave state
THE UNION AND THE
CONFEDERACY, 1861