150-Year Anniversary ยท June 1861
On June 8, 1861, Tennessee voters ratified secession, completing the eleven-state Confederacy. Yet eastern Tennessee remained stubbornly loyal to the Union, a fault line that would trouble the Confederacy throughout the war.
On June 10 a clumsy Union advance on the Virginia Peninsula was repulsed at Big Bethel, one of the first land actions of the war. Small as it was, the affair dampened northern hopes of an easy victory.
In the mountainous counties of northwestern Virginia, Union columns under George B. McClellan moved to secure the region for the Union. The campaign that summer would set western Virginia on the path to becoming a separate, loyal state.
June 1861 still looked like a short war to many observers. How long and costly it became is explained on the Civil War overview.