November 8, 1861 Friday
On U.S.S. San Jacinto, cruising in the Old Bahama Channel, the word was “Beat to quarters” as smoke was seen on the horizon. The British mail packet Trent bound for Britain steamed into view. The ensuing events became a cause célèbre of international relations, threatened war between the United States and Britain, gave the Confederacy cause for outcries against Federal tyranny, and provided international law with a precedent forever after. James M. Mason of Virginia and John Slidell of Louisiana, named commissioners to Great Britain and France by the Confederate States of America, were en route to their new posts, having escaped the blockade at Charleston on Oct 12. The Federal authorities had thought they were on a Confederate man-of-war and had made efforts to intercept them. San Jacinto under cantankerous, troublemaking, yet competent Capt Charles Wilkes had called at Havana, Cuba, and found the commissioners there waiting passage on the Trent. San Jacinto in turn awaited Trent’s departure from Cuba. Sailing in the early afternoon of this day, Trent was halted by threat of force, and after a spirited argument and some hot words, Mason and Slidell, with their secretaries, were taken under guard to San Jacinto, leaving behind outraged wives and children, and an irate and far from speechless British captain, officers, and crew. San Jacinto, proud of its accomplishment, headed for Hampton Roads and Trent drove on for Britain. For the remainder of the year the seizure on the high seas would hardly be out of the news.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trent_Affair and
http://www.navalhistory.org/2010/11/08/ ... mber-1861/ In the Savannah, Georgia area Gen Robert E. Lee, fresh from his depressing experience in western Virginia, took command of the Confederate Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and East Florida. With it he assumed the burden of a wide territory, difficult to defend, blockaded, inadequately manned and armed, and now seriously threatened by the Federal victory at Port Royal. Taking hold quickly, he prepared as best he could for further invasions of the Southern mainland. Meanwhile, Federals carried out a reconnaissance on Hilton Head Island and nearby territory around Beaufort, South Carolina.
In the mountains of east Tennessee, pro-unionists waited no longer for military help from the outside which apparently was not coming soon. In an ill-managed uprising the mountaineers burned railroad bridges and harassed Confederate outposts, forcing Brig Gen Felix Zollicoffer to call for reinforcements (
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2011/nov/0 ... id=1989415 ). In Virginia there was a skirmish at Dam No 5 on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, while in Kentucky fighting broke out at Ivy Mountain and Piketon. The Federal gunboat Rescue, commanded by Lieutenant Gwin, operating near Urbanna Creek up the Rappahannock in Virginia, captured a schooner, extracted her cargo, and burned her, in addition to dueling with shore batteries. Boat expedition under Lieutenant James E. Jouett from U.S.S. Santee surprised and captured Confederate crew of schooner Royal Yacht, and burned the vessel at Galveston. In Missouri pro-Federal Gov Hamilton R. Gamble made arrangements for the organization of a militia.
In Savannah large crowds filled the streets and collected near the telegraph offices for news of the invasion of the Confederate shore a few miles north, Many families packed for the upcountry. At Charleston the ever vocal Mercury cried, “Let the invaders come, ‘tis the unanimous feeling of our people. Our Yankee enemies will, sooner or later, learn to their cost the difference between invaders for spoils and power, and defenders of their liberties, their native land.”
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