The Battle of Arlington Mills was one of the first military engagements of the American Civil War, a week after the Union occupation of that part of Virginia opposite Washington, D.C. It occurred on June 1, 1861, at about 11:00 p.m., a few hours after the Battle of Fairfax Court House.
Under cover of darkness, a squad of just nine Virginia soldier fired at troops of the 1st Michigan Volunteer Infantry and the 11th New York Volunteer Infantry, who were performing picket duty at Arlington Mills, Virginia. The Virginians were technically still Virginia militiamen although Virginia forces had been acting under the direction of Confederate President Jefferson Davis after an agreement on April 24, 1861, between Virginia and the Confederate States as well as after approval on May 23, 1861, by Virginia voters of the ordinance of secession enacted by the Virginia legislature on April 19, 1861.
During a brief and confused exchange of fire, one Union soldier was killed and another was wounded, while one Virginian was wounded. It demonstrated that Union forces were vulnerable to enemy attacks, even when close to the capital.
The U.S. Army surrendered Fort Sumter in the harbor Charleston, South Carolina, to Confederate forces on April 14, 1861. The next day, President Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to serve for 90 days to reclaim federal property and to suppress the rebellion begun by the seven Deep South states which had formed the Confederate States of America (Confederacy). Four Upper South States, including Virginia, refused to furnish troops for this purpose. Instead, political leaders in these states began the process of secession from the Union with the intent of joining the Confederacy. On April 17, a convention for the purpose of considering the secession of Virginia began in Richmond, Virginia. The convention immediately passed an ordinance of secession and authorized the governor to call for volunteers to join the military forces of Virginia to defend the state against Federal military action. Despite scheduling a popular vote to ultimately determine whether Virginia would secede from the Union, the actions of the Virginia Secession Convention and of the state government, especially Virginia Governor John Letcher, effectively took Virginia out of the Union.
Governor Letcher appointed Robert E. Lee, who had just resigned as a colonel in the U.S. Army, as commander in chief of Virginia's army and navy forces on April 22, at the grade of major general. On April 24, Virginia and the Confederate States agreed that the Virginia forces would be under the direction of the Confederate President, Jefferson Davis, pending completion of the process of Virginia joining the Confederate States. On April 27, 1861, Virginia formed the Provisional Army of Virginia in addition to its actively maintained state militia. The Provisional Army of the Confederate States was organized beginning on the same date. Confederate States Army soldiers, except for state militiamen, were in this organization.
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the deadliest conflict in American history, killing an estimated 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers and an unknown number of civilians. The Confederate States of America, formed by eleven seceding Southern states, faced the Union in four years of warfare across 23 states and territories. Major engagements included First and Second Bull Run, Antietam (the bloodiest single day in American history, September 17, 1862), Chancellorsville, Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), Vicksburg (surrendered July 4, 1863), and Sherman's March through Georgia and the Carolinas (1864–1865). President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, transforming the war's stated purpose to include the abolition of slavery and enabling the enlistment of approximately 180,000 Black men in the United States Colored Troops. Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. The war resolved the question of secession and ended American slavery, though Reconstruction would face sustained resistance in its attempt to secure civil rights for formerly enslaved people.
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