On this date 150 years ago, President Lincoln made preparations for the war that now seemed inevitable, by sending out a call for 42,000 volunteers and another 18,000 seamen. He also formed the Department of the Ohio, which was to be commanded by George B. McClellan. General Winfield Scott, the general in chief of the Federal Army, explained that , with the aid of a powerful blockade, it was possible to envelop the states along the entire length of the Mississippi River and provide for the subjugation of insurgents in that way. The arrangement was known as the Anaconda Plan.

The Confederacy sent commissioners to London, England, to meet with the British foreign minister in an attempt to gain recognition for their government in the South. The United States complained to the British ministry about this meeting although it was an unofficial one, according to the British, who were not interested in upsetting their delicate relations with the United States.