Major Pierre G.T. Beauregard took up his appointment as head of the United States Military Academy at West Point on January 23, 1861 despite his well-known southern, and secessionist, sympathies.  He was removed from his new post two days after his home state of Louisiana seceded, becoming the shortest tenured commandant in the academy's history.  He did not resign his U.S. Army commission until a month later and when he returned to New Orleans he claimed $165 as the travel expenses due him from the War Department. (By John Osborne)

Major Pierre G.T. Beauregard took up his appointment as head of the United States Military Academy at West Point despite his well-known southern, and secessionist, sympathies.  Within a week he was removed from his new post two days after his home state of Louisiana seceded, becoming the shortest tenured commandant in the academy's history.  He did not resign his U.S. Army commission until a month later and when he returned to New Orleans he claimed $165 as the travel expenses due him from the War Department. (By John Osborne)

The 130 delegates to the Louisiana secession convention had assembled in Baton Rouge three days before.  A popular referendum earlier and the governor's seizure of federal forts and property over the previous two weeks made the convention's decision a foregone conclusion.  After a motion to delay was overwhelmingly voted down, the convention voted 113 to 17 to secede immediately from the Union.  The ordinance of secession was signed by 120 delegates, including seven who had voted against it.   (By John Osborne)  

The 130 delegates to the Louisiana secession convention assembled in Baton Rouge.  In a recent referendum Louisianans had voted 4,258 for unilateral action to withdraw from the Union, as opposed to a slightly more moderate option to act in concert with other slave states which received 3,978 votes.  This, and the governor's seizure of federal forts and property over the previous two weeks made the convention's decision a foregone conclusion and on January 26, 1861 it voted 113 to 17 to secede immediately.   (By John Osborne)  

Fearing rumors that the U.S. Gulf Squadron planned to garrison them, Governor Thomas O. Moore ordered Louisiana militia to occupy Forts Jackson and Saint Philip on either sides of the Mississippi River seventy miles below New Orleans.  Saint Philip was empty and Jackson in charge of one soldier, Ordinance Sergeant H. Smith.  In the next weeks, both installations were garrisoned. They fell to U.S. Navy units in April 1862.  (By John Osborne)  

Following orders from Governor Thomas O. Moore, who wanted to secure the city for the upcoming secession convention, Louisiana militia surrounded the Federal Arsenal in Baton Rouge and demanded its surrender.  The U.S. Army commander, Captain Joseph H. Haskin, threatened with "a rash sacrifice of life" amongst his small force, complied.  Louisiana now controlled a massive amount of small arms, ammunition, and artillery pieces, enough to supply neighboring Mississippi immediately with 9,000 weapons and 200,000 cartridges.  (By John Osborne)  

Governor John Willis Ellis of North Carolina dispatched state militia to occupy federal installations in Beaufort, Wilmington, and Fayetteville. Seizure was simple.  At Fort Macon in Beaufort, for example, fifty year-old Sergeant William Alexander and his wife were the only federal garrison.  Though the state was months away from secession, Governor Ellis explained his actions as protecting federal property from illegal seizure by secessionist mobs and held the posts till secession did come in May 1861. (By John Osborne)