Butterfield Overland Mail Discontinues Southwestern Route

A Concord stagecoach circa 1869

(Wikipedia) ... In March 1861, before the American Civil War had actually begun at Fort Sumter, the US Government formally revoked the contract of the Butterfield Overland Stagecoach Company in anticipation of the coming conflict.
An Act of Congress, approved March 2, 1861, discontinued this route and service ceased June 30, 1861. On the same date the central route from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Placerville, California, went into effect. This new route was called the Central Overland California Route.
Under the Confederate States of America, the Butterfield route between Texas and Southern California was operated as part of the Overland Mail Corporation route with limited success from 1861 until early 1862 by George Henry Giddings. Continued