Fort Moultrie, in Charleston Harbour, South Carolina—The Secession Flag Flying Description from Fort Moultrie 1809-1930: The English-born correspondent Thomas Butler Gunn, representing himself as a reporter for the Illustrated London News (although he was also secretly filing stories with the New York Tribune and New York Evening Post), gained admission into occupied Fort Moultrie on [...]

January 27, 1861, The New York Herald The State of Louisiana is now added to the list of seceding States. The ordinance of secession was passed in the State Convention yesterday by a vote of 113 to 17. A deathlike silence prevailed during the calling of the roll, and many members were in tears. When [...]

January 27, 1861, The New York Herald The period has manifestly arrived, for our brethren in the British provinces of North America, and especially in Eastern and Western Canada, to be up and stirring, in view of the contagion of revolution which is rapidly spreading over the continent. The mad efforts of fanatics at the [...]

January 27, 1861, The New York Herald The present generation have not experienced the horrors of war upon their own soil, or felt its intolerable burdens, and hence flippant journalists at the North and at the South, and demagogues who desire to fish in troubled waters, can with impunity urge the country to take a [...]

January 27, 1861, The New York Herald At no period in the commercial history of New York have the prospects of a profitable and flourishing trade in the approaching spring and summer been more bright than at the present time, apart from the obstructions which the political troubles of the day interpose to the fulfillment [...]

Raphael Semmes[i] to Howell Cobb. Washington, D. C,  Jan’y 26th, 1861. My Dear Sir: Permit me to remind you of the conversation we had just before you left Washington. I think States enough have gone out to determine me as to the course I shall pursue. If invited by the Confederacy of the Cotton States [...]

Washington Jany 26. 1861. My dear wife We were glad to receive your letter to Sadie last night, and very glad to hear you and Caddie are so well. Some sore throat prevails here. Sadie has been complaining of it for a day or two, but she is about and attended a party with me [...]

SATURDAY 26 A regular snow storm today, snow four or five inches deep. Nothing important occurs from day today here. But the Govt is posting troops in different parts of the City for its protection. We were just startled by hearing two pistol shots and a cry of Watch Watch on Franklin Square near our [...]

Main Battery at Fort Sumter, Bearing on Fort Moultrie and the Channel.—From a Sketch by an Officer of Major Anderson’s Command Harper’s Weekly, January 26, 1861  (Special handed-tinted off-print) Special handed-tinted off-prints were often sold separately from newspapers. Numerous originals held today by public institutions and in private collections.

Jan. 26, 1861.–The solemn boom of cannon today announced that the convention have passed the ordinance of secession. We must take a reef in our patriotism and narrow it down to State limits. Mine still sticks out all around the borders of the State. It will be bad if New Orleans should secede from Louisiana [...]

–The Louisiana State Convention passed the ordinance of secession to-day, by a vote of one hundred and thirteen to seventeen. A delay ordinance was proposed yesterday, but was voted down by a large majority. A gold pen was given each member, with which to sign the ordinance of secession.–(Doc. 27.)– Buffalo Courier.

[JANUARY 26, 1861.] Saturday–8 o’clock a.m. Hon. JOHN ROBERTSON, Commissioner from Virginia, Charleston: President’s reply: “Brooklyn not for South Carolina. On errand of mercy and relief.” JOHN TYLER.

WAR DEPARTMENT, January 26, 1861. Lieut. Gen. W. Scott: DEAR GENERAL: The President is much disturbed by a telegraphic dispatch which announces that the Brooklyn has sailed with two companies instead of one as was ordered. I assured him that the dispatch must be inaccurate, but would be glad to repeat the assurance on your [...]

FORT TAYLOR, KEY WEST, FLA.,………. January 26, 1861. SIR: I have to report that no demonstration has been made upon this fort to this date. There is no apprehension from the population of Key West, but I have no doubt that a force will soon appear at any moment from the mainland. If my company [...]

January 26, 1861, The New York Herald The poor of New York are divided into two great classes – those who have homes, such as they are, and those who when they awake in the morning know not where they will sleep the next night. Of this latter class there are at least a thousand [...]

January 26, 1861, The New York Herald Our Washington correspondent announces that the government has despatched reinforcements to Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor, and Fort Pickens, at Pensacola, and this report is somewhat confirmed by the departure of the steam sloop-of-war Brooklyn from Norfolk on Thursday, bound South, with sealed orders, having on board two [...]

January 26, 1861, The Charleston Mercury The information that the Brooklyn sailed on Thursday evening from Hampton Roads, with troops on board, bound South, reached this city on the same night. It is to be presumed that her destination is Pensacola, although a bright lookout will be kept for her at the entrance of this [...]

January 26, 1861, The New York Herald The seizure by the local authorities of Georgia of the United States Arsenal at Augusta, with its store of arms, adds but another to the numerous proceedings of a similar character which have placed all the seceded States in the attitude of undeniable revolution against the general government [...]

January 26, 1861 The state of Louisiana secedes from the Union with a vote of 112 to 17 at the Secession Convention. The sovereign state of Mississippi establishes a state flag: It featured a white, five-pointed star on a dark blue canton (commonly called the Bonnie Blue), a field of white with a magnolia tree [...]

FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 1861. The weather has been moderate today without rain, or sunshine. Political excitement appears to be subsiding in a measure. The conservative feeling in the border States is now relied upon to save the Union, or Civil War. Many prominent men are here now from different sections of the U.S. Kentucky has [...]

–A large Union mass meeting was held at Portland, Me., this evening; Chief Justice Shepley presided, and the meeting was addressed by many of the ablest speakers of all parties. Union resolutions were passed. –A correspondence between Senator Toombs, of Georgia, and Fernando Wood, mayor of New York, relative to the seizure of arms by [...]

AUGUSTA ARSENAL, GA., January 25, 1861. SIR : I have the honor to report that this post was surrendered to the authorities of the State of Georgia on a demand made by the governor in person, backed by a very superior force of the military of the State. The company of Second U. S. Artillery [...]

HEADQUARTERS FORT MONROE, VA., January 25, 1861. Lieut. Col. L. THOMAS,   Assistant Adjutant-General, Headquarters of the Army, New York City: COLONEL: I have the honor to report that in compliance with instructions from the General-in-Chief, Captain Vogdes’ company (A, First Artillery) left this post yesterday between 4 and 5 o’clock p.m. to embark on [...]

January 25, 1861; The Charleston Mercury Surgeon General GIBBES respectfully thanks a lady of Charleston for two dozen under shirts, and another lady of Charleston for twenty more. They have been sent as requested. He also acknowledges the patriotic present of bandages and lint for Mollie’s of Talladega, Alabama. He also thanks many ladies of [...]