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| Thursday May 16, 1861 |
The State of Tennessee was officially admitted to the Confederacy on this
day.
The President attends wedding of Lt. Lorenzo Thomas, Jr., son of Adjutant
General. Lorenzo Thomas, and Miss Bradley, 9 A.M. Trinity Church, 3rd and
C Streets. NW. He also witnesses a dress parade of 7th New York
Regiment with Secretary of State Seward and reviews troops. General Butler
arrives by special train and spends the evening in consultation with Lincoln,
General Winfield Scott, Postmaster General Blair, and Secretary of War
Simon Cameron. A group of Alexandria citizens visits the President and
assures him the town would vote by a majority of one thousand against
secession. The Empire City Regiment band serenades Mrs. Lincoln at
Metropolitan Hotel in New York. Mrs. Lincoln orders dinner service for White
House and purchases mantel ornaments for Blue and Green Rooms.
Lincoln's call for volunteers in the aftermath of Fort Sumter put Kentucky
Unionists on the defensive. The strategy they adopted at this point became a
passive one. Rather than seek a ringing affirmation of union, they opted for
much less, a position of neutrality. This would at least keep Kentucky from
considering an ordinance of secession in the near term. Once intense
secession spirit had waned, neutrality could evolve into Unionism.
Significantly, the state's secessionists were the ones who opposed the
neutrality resolution adopted by the Kentucky Legislature on this date.
Geographic analysis of this final action taken by the legislature reveals that
the greatest opposition to neutrality came from the (Western) First
Congressional District counties, proclaimed by Lincoln to be in rebellion on
September 1, 1861. Kentucky, in contrast to Tennessee, was never to vote in
a statewide election on secession.
The confederate Government also on this day offers War Volunteers a $10
premium.
Major Robert Anderson of Fort Sumter is appointed a brigadier general on
this date.