On this date 150 years ago, Richmond, Virginia, witnessed the arrest of John Minor Botts for treason against the Confederacy. Botts, a former Virginian congressman and an avowed neutral, was seized along with 30 others, among them the Reverend Alden Bosserman, a Universalist minister. The latter had prayed for an end to "this unholy rebellion." The Confederate capital was now under martial law, President Jefferson Davis placed General John Winder in control of the city.

General Beauregard positioned troops along the Mississippi River while General Henry Halleck directed General Grant to take his forces towards Eastport, Mississippi. There were brief clashes between Union and Confederate soldiers at Pittsburg Landing, where gunboats had travelled up the Tennessee River. They destroyed a Confederate battery positioned there by General Beauregard's troops.