The Call to War

15 April 1861  

On this date in 1861...

U.S. President Lincoln issued a public proclamation calling for seventy-five thousand volunteers to escalate the war he had started.  This call was made without the consent of Congress, which was a breach of the Constitution. It signaled another act of aggression against the peaceful secession of the Confederate states.

Other Years:

• 1528 - Pánfilo de Narváez, a Spanish conquistador, arrived in Florida with 350 men and received a hostile reception from local Indians.
• 1715 - The Pocotaligo Massacre triggered the start of the Yamasee War in colonial South Carolina.
• 1777 - Shawnee warriors attacked American settlers at Boonesborough, Kentucky, but the stockade resisted the Indian attack.
• 1861 - North Carolina state troops occupied Fort Macon.
• 1865 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln died from wounds received from an assassin.
• 1879 - Victorio and 39 Warm Springs Apache followers who had surrendered escaped at Ojo Caliente, New Mexico due to fears of being sent to a reservation and returned to Mexico.
• 1889 - American painter and muralist, Thomas Hart Benton was born in Neosho, Missouri.

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