Civil War Service
Van Dorn chose to follow his home state and the Confederate cause, and he resigned his U.S. Army commission, which was accepted effective January 31, 1861. He was appointed a brigadier general in the Mississippi Militia on January 23, and replaced Jefferson Davis as major general and commander of Mississippi's state forces in February when Davis was selected as the Confederacy's President.
After resigning from the Mississippi Militia on March 16, 1861, Van Dorn entered the Regular Confederate Army as a colonel of infantry on that same date. He was sent west to raise and lead a volunteer brigade within the new Confederate Department of Texas. On April 11 he was given command of Confederate forces in Texas, and was also ordered to arrest and detain any U.S. troops in the state who refused to join the Confederacy.
Leaving New Orleans on April 14 and arriving at Galveston, Texas, he and his men succeeded in capturing three Union ships in the town's harbor, on April 17 and then headed for the last remaining regular U.S. Army soldiers in Texas at Indianola, forcing their surrender on April 23. While at Indianola, Van Dorn attempted to recruit the captured U.S. soldiers into the forces of the Confederacy, but was largely unsuccessful.
Van Dorn was summoned to Richmond, Virginia, and appointed a colonel in the 1st C.S. Regular Cavalry on April 25, leading all of Virginia's cavalry forces, and then quickly promoted to brigadier general on June 5. After being promoted to major general on September 19, 1861, Van Dorn was given divisional command in the Confederate Army of the Potomac five days later, leading the 1st Division until January 10, 1862. Around this time Confederate President Davis needed a commander the new Trans-Mississippi District, as two of the leading Confederate generals there, bitter rivals Sterling Price and Benjamin McCulloch, required a leader to subdue their strong personalities and organize an effective fighting force. Both Henry Heth and Braxton Bragg had turned down the post, and Davis selected Van Dorn. He headed west beginning on January 19 to concentrate his separated commands, and set up his headquarters at Pocahontas, Arkansas. He assumed command of the district on January 29, 1862.
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