On this date 150 years ago, from Fort Pickens, Florida, Union troops fired on the Confederate batteries at Pensacola. At Fort Barrancas there was a similiar exchange of fire. The Port Royal area in South Carolina witnessed skirmishing as Federals continued their move to establish a permanent base at that important coastal location; this latter conflict resulted in rebel batteries being pushed out of their positions on Port Royal Island, South Carolina.

While skirmishes at Dayton, Missouri, caused some extensive damage to the town, General Halleck received communications from Washington concerning the army's inactivity. Halleck was encouraged to advance with his own troops, as well as with forces under General Buell, on Nashville, Tennessee, and Columbus, Kentucky.

James Mason and John Slidell, the two Confederate commissioners seized on the "Trent" and then released by the Union government, boarded a British schooner off Provincetown, Massachusetts, for the first leg of their journey to England. The British vessel "Rinaldo" would take the two men to London where they would continue their interupted attempt to gain recognition and support for the Confederacy. With their departure, the "Trent" affair, which had caused so much consternation in Washington, D.C., and had carried with it the possibility of a serious conflict between the British and American governments, was effectively closed.