The U.S. Revenue cutter Henry Dodge, a small schooner in poor condition, became the latest federal vessel to fall into the hands of seceding states when the  Quartermaster of the Confederate States of America in Houston ordered its seizure in Galveston, Texas.  Its commander, Lieutenant William Rodgers also joined the Confederacy.  The U.S. Navy recaptured the schooner, refurbished as a blockade-runner and renamed Mary Sorly, in April 1864.  (By John Osborne) 

Major-General Daniel Twiggs was dismissed from the U.S. Army in a curt order from Secretary of War Holt "for his treachery to the flag of his country, in having surrendered on the 18th of February, on the demands of the authorities of Texas, the military posts and other property of the United States in his department and under his charge."  Twiggs defended himself of the accusation but joined the C.S.A. as a major-general soon after.  He died at his home in Georgia in September 1862.  (By John Osborne) 

The annual meeting Philadelphia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church heard a report from its Committee on the State of the Church.  The committee agreed with a recent urging of the East Baltimore Conference to withdraw the Methodist Church's new rules that condemned slavery and recommended to allow each Conference to make its own regulation on slavery for "the interests of the Redeemer's kingdom among them."  (By John Osborne)

In the morning, a secession flag would found, hoisted up the flagstaff outside the Jolly Post Inn in the Frankford section of north-east Philadelphia, about six miles from the city center.  It was quickly taken down but the knowledge that the village was home to one of the most important U.S. Army arsenals producing ammunition obviously drew comment.  In fact, the commander of the Frankford Arsenal was Josiah Gorgas, who would soon join the Confederate Army and play a vital role in its arming.  (By John Osborne) 

Organized union members from Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Ohio, and Delaware met in a national conference at the Wetherill House on Sansom Street in Philadelphia.  A permanent committee was established, and resolutions adopted endorsing the Crittenden Compromise or any other congressional recognition of "the equal rights of the South in the Territories," together with clear rejection of civil war to solve the differences.  (By John Osborne) 

Lemuel Shaw was the long-serving Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court who presided over several historic cases, including the 1836 case of a slave girl who was freed when brought into the state, Commonwealth v. Hunt, which held in 1843 that labor unions could organize without fear of being charged with conspiracy, and Roberts v the City of Boston, which upheld racial school segregation on a "separate but equal" basis in 1849.  He retired in August, 1860 and died within a year.  His daughter married Herman Melville.  (By John Osborne)  

Alexander H. Stephens, the new vice-president of the Confederate States gave a speech in Savannah, Georgia explaining the new elements of the Confederate Constitution.   Significantly, he held that the Confederacy's "foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that Slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and moral condition." This passage was widely reported in the North. (By John Osborne)