Timeline 1862-1863
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1862 Jan 1, The US federal government Tax Act of July 14, 1862, took effect as of January 1, 1862.
(AP, 8/5/97)(http://tinyurl.com/brzpcg3)
1862 Jan 4, In the Romney Campaign Stonewall Jackson occupied Bath.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1862 Jan 7, Battle of Manassas Junction, VA.
(MC, 1/7/02)
1862 Jan 8, Frank Nelson Doubleday, founder of Doubleday publishing house, was born.
(HN, 1/8/99)
1862 Jan 10, Battle of Big Sandy River, KY (Middle Creek).
(MC, 1/10/02)
1862 Jan 10, Battle of Romney, WV.
(MC, 1/10/02)
1862 Jan 10, Samuel Colt (47), inventor (6 shot revolver), died.
(MC, 1/10/02)
1862 Jan 11, Lincoln accepted Simon Cameron's resignation as Secretary of War.
(HN, 1/11/99)
1862 Jan 13, President Lincoln named Edwin M. Stanton Secretary of War.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1862 Jan 18, Confederate Territory of Arizona formed.
(MC, 1/18/02)
1862 Jan 18, John Tyler (71), 10th president of the United States (1841-1845), died and was buried at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Va. He drank a mint julep every morning for breakfast. Tyler had joined the Confederacy after his presidency and was designated a "sworn enemy of the United States."
(AP, 1/18/98)(SFEC, 11/15/98, Z1 p.10)(SFEC, 12/20/98, Z1 p.8)(HN, 1/18/99)
1862 Jan 22, Confederate government raised the premium for volunteers from $10 to $20.
(MC, 1/22/02)
1862 Jan 24, Edith Wharton (d.1937), U.S. novelist was born. Her novels included Age of Innocence," House of Mirth," "Summer," and "Ethan Frome." She also wrote books on home design. "There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle, or the mirror that reflects it." "The essence of taste is suitability. Divest the word of its prim and priggish implications, and see how it expresses the mysterious demand of the eye and mind for symmetry, harmony and order." In 1978 Gore Vidal edited the "Edith Wharton Omnibus." Eleanor Dwight wrote her 1994 biography: "An Extraordinary Life."
(AP, 8/17/97)(WSJ, 12/9/97, p.A20)(AP, 1/11/98)(HN, 1/24/99)(SSFC, 1/14/01, BR p.8)
1862 Jan 27, President Abraham Lincoln issued General War Order No. 1, setting in motion the Union armies.
(HN, 1/27/99)
1862 Jan 29, William Quantrill and his Confederate raiders attack Danville, Kentucky.
(HN, 1/29/00)
1862 Jan 30, The USS Monitor, a Union ironclad ship designed by John Ericsson, was launched into the East River at Greenpoint, Long Island, under Captain John L. Worden. It was the first warship equipped with a revolving turret. On March 6 it left NY Harbor and headed for Virginia to face the Confederate ironclad.
(HN, 1/30/99)(AH, 12/02, p.8)(ON, 10/08, p.1)
1862 Feb 1, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" was first published in "Atlantic Monthly" as an anonymous poem. The lyric was the work of Julia Ward Howe and was based on chapter 63 of the Old Testament’s Book of Isaiah. "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" soon became the most popular Union marching song of the Civil War and is still being sung and to the tune of a song titled, "John Brown’s Body". Julia Ward Howe (b.1819-1908) was an influential social reformer and wife of fellow reformer and educator Samuel Gridley Howe. She was prominent in the anti-slavery movement, woman‘s suffrage, prison reform and the international peace movements. Julia Ward Howe was the first woman elected to the American Academy of Fine Arts and Letters in 1908. Ralph Waldo Emerson, said: "I honor the author of 'The Battle Hymn' ... she was born in the city of New York. I could well wish she were a native of Massachusetts. We have no such poetess in New England."
(440 Int'l, 2/1/1999)(HNQ, 1/31/00,5/21/02)
1862 Feb 6, Ulysses S. Grant began a military campaign in Mississippi. The Battle of Fort Henry, Tenn., began the Mississippi Valley campaign.
(HN, 2/6/99)(MC, 2/6/02)
1862 Feb 7, Bernard Maybeck (d.1957), architect, was born in NYC. He designed the Palace of Fine Arts in SF and the First Church of Christ Scientist in Berkeley.
(SFEM,12/797, p.46)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Maybeck)
1862 Feb 7, Federal fleet attacked Roanoke Island, NC.
(MC, 2/7/02)
1862 Feb 8, Union troops under Gen. Ambrose Burnside defeated a Confederate defense force at the Battle of Roanoke Island, N.C.
(HN, 2/8/99)
1862 Feb 13, Four-day Battle of Fort Donelson, Tenn., began. General Grant said, "What determined my attack on Donelson was as much the knowledge I had gained of its commanders in Mexico as anything else."
(HN, 2/13/98)
1862 Feb 14, Galena, the 1st US iron-clad warship for service at sea, was launched in Conn.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1862 Feb 15, Grant launched a major assault on Fort Donelson, Tenn.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1862 Feb 16, During the Civil War, some 14,000 Confederate soldiers surrendered at Fort Donelson, Tenn. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s victory earned him the nickname "Unconditional Surrender Grant." Nathan Bedford Forrest escaped.
(AP, 2/16/98)(HN, 2/16/98)
1862 Feb 18, Charles M. Schwab, "Boy Wonder" of the steel industry, was born. He became president of both U.S. Steel and Bethlehem Steel.
(HN, 2/18/99)
1862 Feb 20, Willie Lincoln (b.1850), son of Pres. Lincoln, died in Washington DC. Typhoid fever was the suspected cause.
(SSFC, 3/20/05, Par p.4)(www.nps.gov/liho/lincoln.htm)
1862 Feb 21, The Texas Rangers won a Confederate victory in the Battle of Val Verde, New Mexico.
(HN, 2/21/98)
1862 Feb 21, Confederate Constitution & presidency were declared permanent.
(MC, 2/21/02)
1862 Feb 22, Jefferson Davis was inaugurated president of the Confederacy in Richmond, Va. for the second time.
(HN, 2/22/98)
1862 Feb 22, Mary Smith Peake (1823-1862), American teacher and humanitarian, died of tuberculosis. She is best known for teaching runaway slaves under an oak tree, the Emancipation Oak, near Fort Monroe, Va.
(ON, 2/12, p.2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_S._Peake)
1862 Feb 25, Congress formed the US Bureau of Engraving & Printing. Greenbacks were introduced.
(MC, 2/25/02)
1862 Feb 25, Confederate troops abandoned Nashville, Tenn., in the face of Grant’s advance.
(HN, 2/25/98)
1862 Feb 25, The ironclad Monitor was commissioned at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
(HN, 2/25/98)
1862 Feb 26, Battle of Woodburn, KY.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1862 Feb 26, Cornelius Felton (b.1807), president of Harvard Univ., died in Chester, Pen., after 2 years in office.
(WSJ, 2/21/06, p.A3)(www.nndb.com/people/711/000107390/)
1862 Feb 28, Karl Goldmark's opera "The Queen of Sheba," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1862 Mar 2, Gen’l. Frederick W. Lander (b.1821), transcontinental engineer and Union General, died of “congestion of the brain" at Paw Paw, Virginia. He was the chief engineer of the Central Overland route. In 2000 Gary L. Ecalbarger authored “Frederick W. Lander: The Great Natural American Soldier."
(www.picturehistory.com/find/p/16832/mcms.html)(ACC, 2004)
1862 Mar 3, General Pope laid siege in front of New Madrid, MO.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1862 Mar 6, Battle of Pea Ridge, AR (Elkhorn Tavern). [see Mar 7]
(MC, 3/6/02)
1862 Mar 7, Confederate forces surprised the Union army at the Battle of Pea Ridge, in Arkansas, but the Union was victorious. [see Mar 6]
(HN, 3/7/99)
1862 Mar 7, In the second day of the Battle of Elkhorn Tavern, Generals McCulloch and McIntosh perished.
(HN, 3/7/98)
1862 Mar 8, On the second day of the Battle of Pea Ridge (Elkhorn Tavern) in Arkansas, Confederate forces, including some Indian troops, under General Earl Van Dorn surprised Union troops, but the Union troops won the battle. Pea Ridge Natl. Military Park, Arkansas, marked the site where Confederate commanders, Gen. Ben McCulloch and Gen. James McIntosh, were killed.
(Postcard, Coastal Photo Scenics, SW Harbor, Maine)(HN, 3/8/98)(HN, 3/8/99)
1862 Mar 8, The ironclad CSS Virginia (formerly USS Merrimack) rammed and sank the USS Cumberland and inflicted heavy damage on the USS Congress, both frigates, off Newport News, Va. Popular during the Crimean War, the floating battery was revived by hard-pressed Confederates.
(AP, 3/8/07)(HN, 3/8/98)
1862 Mar 8, Nat Gordon, last pirate, was hanged in NYC for stealing 1,000 slaves.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1862 Mar 9, The ironclads, CSS Virginia, (formerly Merrimac) of the South, battled the USS Monitor, designed by John Ericsson, in their first battle for five hours to a draw at Hampton Roads, Va. The story is told by James Tertius deKay in his 1998 book “Monitor: The Story of the Legendary Civil War Ironclad and the Man Whose Invention Changed the Course of History."
(SFEC, 1/18/98, Par p.16)(AP, 3/9/98)(HN, 3/9/98)
1862 Mar 10, First U.S. paper money was issued in denominations of $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, $500 & $1000.
(HN, 3/10/98)(MC, 3/10/02)
1862 Mar 11, Pres. Lincoln suspended General George McClellan from command of all the Union armies so that McClellan could concentrate on the Army of the Potomac and Richmond.
(www.civilwarhome.com/macbio.htm)
1862 Mar 12, Jane Delano (d.1919), nurse, teacher and founder of the American Red Cross, was born in Montour Falls, New York. She helped the American Red Cross Nursing Service to be recognized as the nursing reserve for the Army and Navy.
(www.wordiq.com/definition/Jane_Delano)
1862 Mar 13, The US Congress passed a bill prohibiting the military from returning slaves to their masters.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_Prohibiting_the_Return_of_Slaves)
1862 Mar 14, Battle of New Bern, NC. General Burnside conquered New Bern, a strategic port and rail hub.
(AM, 11/04, p.28)
1862 Mar 15, General John Hunt Morgan began four days of raids near the city of Gallatin, Tenn. "The Yankees will never take me a prisoner again," vowed Confederate General John Hunt Morgan.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1862 Mar 19, F. Wilhelm von Schadow (73), German painter (Modern Vasari), died.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1862 Mar 23, Battle of Kernstown, Va., began. Winchester, Va., was another embattled town. Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson faced his only defeat at the Battle of Kernstown, Va., as he began his Valley Campaign.
(HN, 3/23/98)(HN, 3/23/99)(SS, 3/23/02)
1862 Mar 24, Abolitionist Wendell Phillips spoke to a crowd about emancipation in Cincinnati, Ohio and was pelted by eggs.
(HN, 3/24/00)
1862 Mar 26, Battle of La Glorieta Pass, New Mexico Territory (Apache Canyon, Pigeon's Ranch).
(SS, 3/26/02)
1862 Mar 28, Aristide Briand, premier of France (1909-22), was born.
(HN, 3/28/98)
1862 Mar 28, US Civil War skirmish at Bealeton Station, Virginia.
(MC, 3/28/02)
1862 Mar 31, Skirmishing between Rebels and Union forces took place at Island 10 on the Mississippi River.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1862 Apr 1, Shenandoah Valley campaign, Jackson's Battle of Woodstock, VA.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1862 Apr 3, A bill was passed to abolish slavery in Washington, D.C. [see Apr 16]
(HN, 4/3/98)
1862 Apr 4, Battle of Yorktown, Virginia, began as Union gen. George B. McClellan closed in on Richmond. This began the Peninsular Campaign aimed at capturing Richmond.
(HN, 4/4/99)(MC, 4/4/02)
1862 Apr 5, Siege of Yorktown, VA., continued.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1862 Apr 6, Two days of bitter fighting began at the Civil War battle of Shiloh (called Pittsburg Landing by the Confederates) as the Confederates attacked Grant's Union forces in southwestern Tennessee. Union commander Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, planning to advance on the important railway junction at Corinth, Miss., met a surprise attack by General Albert Sidney Johnston's Army of Mississippi. The Confederates pushed the Federals back steadily during the first day's fighting, in spite of Johnston's death that afternoon. Only with the arrival of Union reinforcements during the night did the tide turn, forcing the rebels to withdraw. The opposing sides slaughtered each other with such ferocity that one survivor wrote, "No blaze of glory...can ever atone for the unwritten and unutterable horrors of the scene." Gen. Ulysses Grant after the Battle of Shiloh said: "I saw an open field... so covered with dead that it would have been possible to walk across... in any direction, stepping on dead bodies without a foot touching the ground." More than 9,000 Americans died. The battle left some 24,000 casualties and secured the West for the Union. In 1952 Shelby Foote wrote "Shiloh," an historical novel based on documentation from participants in the battle. Recorded Books made a cassette version in 1992.
(SFC, 6/19/96, p.E5)(HT, 4/97, p.13)(AP, 4/6/97)(AM, May/Jun 97 p.27)(RBI, 1992)(HN, 4/6/98)(HNPD, 4/6/99)
1862 Apr 6, Albert Sidney Johnston (59), US and Confederate general, was killed in battle of Shiloh.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1862 Apr 7, Union forces led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant defeated the Confederates at the battle of Shiloh in Tennessee. Gen. Ulysses Grant after the Battle of Shiloh said: "I saw an open field... so covered with dead that it would have been possible to walk across... in any direction, stepping on dead bodies without a foot touching the ground." More than 9,000 Americans died.
(SFC, 6/19/96, p.E5)(HT, 4/97, p.13)(AP, 4/7/97)
1862 Apr 8, John D. Lynde patented an aerosol dispenser.
(MC, 4/8/02)
1862 Apr 10, Union forces began the bombardment of Fort Pulaski in Georgia along the Tybee River.
(HN, 4/10/99)
1862 Apr 11, Charles Evans Hughs, 11th Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1930-41), was born. He resisted President Franklin Roosevelt’s attempts to "pack" the Supreme Court with judges favorable to the New Deal.
(HN, 4/11/99)
1862 Apr 11, Rebels surrendered Ft Pulaski, Georgia.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1862 Apr 12, Union volunteers from Ohio, led by Lt. James J. Andrews, stole a Confederate train near Marietta, Ga. They were caught 89 miles up the track. 8 of the 24 raiders were hanged that summer. 8 others escaped and made their way north. The episode inspired Buster Keaton’s 1927 comedy "The General." In 1956 Disney retold the story in “The Great Locomotive Chase" with Fess Parker. In 2006 Russell S. Bonds authored “Stealing the General."
(AP, 4/12/00)(WSJ, 11/10/06, p.W4)
1862 Apr 12, Union troops occupied Fort Pulaski, Georgia.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1862 Apr 13, In the Washington area volunteers led by Sarah J. Evans paid homage to the graves of Civil War soldiers. Villagers in Waterloo, NY, held their 1st Memorial Day service on May 5, 1866. In 1966 Pres. Johnson gave Waterloo, NY, the distinction of holding the 1st Memorial Day.
(SFC, 5/26/03, p.A2)
1862 Apr 16, Confederate President Jefferson Davis approved conscription act for white males between 18 and 35.
(HN, 4/16/98)
1862 Apr 16, President Lincoln signed a bill, passed on April 3, ending slavery in the District of Columbia.
(HN, 4/16/98)(AP, 4/16/08)
1862 Apr 18, Battle of Ft Jackson, Ft St. Philip and New Orleans, LA.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1862 Apr 19, Simon Fraser, Canadian explorer, died.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1862 Apr 21, Ellen Price Wood's "East Lynne," premiered in Boston.
(MC, 4/21/02)
1862 Apr 21, Congress established the U.S. Mint.
(HN, 4/21/98)
1862 Apr 25, Admiral David Farragut gained control of the Mississippi River at New Orleans, Louisiana. A few days later federal troops occupied the city. This stopped cotton sales by the Confederacy a revenue shortage that led to printed money and hyperinflation. In 2000 Jack D. Coombe published "Gunfire Around the Gulf," which recounts the Southern Civil War naval campaign.
(www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=1105)(WSJ, 1/26/00, p.A20)(WSJ, 11/21/08, p.W6)
1862 Apr 29, Forts Philip and Jackson surrendered to Union forces under Admiral Farragut outside New Orleans. 100,000 federal troops prepared to march into Corinth, Miss.
(AP, 4/29/98)(HN, 4/29/98)(MC, 4/29/02)
1862 May 1, Marcel Prevost, French publisher, writer (Les demis-vierges), was born.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1862 May 4, Battle at Williamsburg, Virginia. [see May 5]
(MC, 5/4/02)
1862 May 4, At Yorktown, VA., McClellan halted his troop before town as it was full of armed land mines left by CS Brig. general Gabrial Rains.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1862 May 5, Battle of Williamsburg commenced as part of the Peninsular Campaign. Confederate Captain Charles Bruce kept his father apprised of conditions during the crucial Peninsula campaign.
(HN, 5/5/98)
1862 May 5, At the Battle of Pueblo, a [2,000] 5,000 man Mexican force (cavalry), loyal to Benito Juarez and under the leadership of Gen’l. Ignacio Zaragoza, defeated 6,000 [10,000] French troops sent by Napoleon III. The French were attempting to capture Puebla de Los Angeles, a small town in east-central Mexico. The Battle of Puebla represented a great moral victory for the Mexican government, symbolizing the country's ability to defend its sovereignty against threat by a powerful foreign nation. The event became memorialized in the Cinco de Mayo annual festival. Napoleon had intended to march through to the US and help the Confederacy in the Civil War.
(SFEM, 4/27/97, p.6)(AP, 5/5/97)(SFEC,11/9/97, p.T6)(SFEC, 11/8/98, p.T8)(SFC, 5/1/99, p.A13)(WSJ, 5/5/00, p.W17)(MC, 5/5/02)
1862 May 6, Henry David Thoreau (44), American writer, died of tuberculosis. In 1999 his unfinished manuscript "Wild Fruits," a catalog of his observations on local plants and fruits, was published.
(WP, 1952, p.42)(SFC, 9/7/99, p.A3)(HN, 5/6/01)
1862 May 7, At the Battle of Eltham's Landing in Virginia, Confederate troops struck Union troops in the Shenandoah Valley.
(HN, 5/7/99)
1862 May 8, General 'Stonewall' Jackson repulsed the Federals at the Battle of McDowell, in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign.
(HN, 5/8/99)
1862 May 9, Battle of Ft. Pickens, FL (Pensacola), evacuated by CSA.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1862 May 9, Battle of Farmington, MS.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1862 May 9, US Naval Academy was relocated from Annapolis MD to Newport, RI.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1862 May 10, Battle of Plum Run Bend, TN (Plum Point Bend).
(MC, 5/10/02)
1862 May 11, The Confederates scuttled the CSS Virginia off Norfolk, Virginia.
(HN, 5/11/98)
1862 May 12, Federal troops occupied Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1862 May 13, Robert Smalls, a slave crewman on the Confederate steamboat Planter, stole the ship from the harbor of Charleston and surrendered it to the USS Onward of the Union blockade. In 1971 Okon Edet Uya published "From slavery to Public Service: Robert Smalls, 1839-1915.
(ON, 5/00, p.2)
1862 May 15, Arthur Schnitzler, playwright, novelist (La Ronde), was born in Austria.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1862 May 15, The US Department of Agriculture was created.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1862 May 15, General Benjamin F. ("Beast") Butler decreed "Woman Order," that all captured women in New Orleans were to be his whores.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1862 May 15, The Union ironclad Monitor and the gunboat Galena fired on Confederate troops at the Battle of Drewry's Bluff, Virginia.
(HN, 5/15/99)
1862 May 15, The Confederate cruiser Alabama ran aground near London.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1862 May 15-17, Battle of Princeton, WV.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1862 May 18, William High Keim (b.1813), US Union Brigadier-General, died in camp of fever in Harrisburg, Pa.
(SC, 5/18/02)(http://home.ptd.net/~nikki/usagen3.htm)
1862 May 19, Homestead Act became law and provided cheap land for settlement of West.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1862 May 20, President Lincoln signed the Homestead Act, providing 250 million acres of free land to settlers in the West. It officially opened the Nebraska territory for settlement, leading to statehood in 1867. The US government passed the Homestead Act to stop the spread of slavery to the Western territories. Public land was awarded to any head of a family on condition that the settlers improve the land and live there for 5 years.
(Hem., 5/97, p.20)(HNQ, 12/3/00)(HN, 5/20/01)
1862 May 23, Stonewall Jackson took Fort Royal, Virginia, in the Valley Campaign.
(HN, 5/23/98)
1862 May 24, Westminster Bridge opened across the Thames.
(MC, 5/24/02)
1862 May 25, Battle of Winchester, VA.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1862 May 25, Johann N. Nestroy (60) Austrian actor (Einmal Keine Sorgen Haben), died.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1862 May 27, Battle of Hanover Court House, VA (Slash Church, Peake's Station).
(MC, 5/27/02)
1862 May 29, Confederate General P.T. Beauregard retreated to Tupelo, Mississippi. He had taken command of the Trans-Mississippi area after the death of General Albert Sidney Johnson.
(HN, 5/29/99)
1862 May 29, Franciszek Wincenty Mirecki (71), composer, died.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1862 May 30, Confederate General Beauregard evacuated Corinth, Mississippi and Union troops under Union General Henry Halleck entered.
(HN, 5/30/98)
1862 May 30, Battle of Front Royal, VA.
(MC, 5/30/02)
1862 May 31, At the Battle of Fair Oaks, McClellan defeated the Confederates outside of Richmond.
(HN, 5/31/98)
1862 May, Union Colonel Benjamin H. Grierson was commissioned a major in the 6th Illinois Cavalry. He proved to be an excellent cavalry leader despite his prewar experience as a music teacher who hated horses. Grierson had traveled to various small towns organizing amateur bands. When the war began, the Midwesterner enlisted as a private in the infantry. He very much wanted to do his share of the fighting on foot; while a child, he had been kicked in the face by a horse and still harbored a severe dislike for the equine creatures. This was not to be. A man with little military training or experience--and a pronounced dislike of horses--would soon prove to be one of the most skilled cavalry leaders of the war. His raids in early 1863 greatly helped Grant’s army in the siege of Vicksburg.
(HN, 6/28/01)
1862 Jun 1, General Robert E. Lee assumed command of the Confederate Army outside Richmond after General Joe Johnston was injured at Seven Pines. Robert E. Lee received a field command: the Army of Northern Virginia.
(DTnet, 6/1/97)(HN, 6/1/98)(HNQ, 8/2/01)
1862 Jun 4, Confederates evacuated Ft. Pillow, Tenn.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1862 Jun 6, The city of Memphis surrendered to the Union Navy after an intense naval engagement on the Mississippi River.
(HN, 6/6/98)
1862 Jun 6, Battle of Port Royal, SC (Port Royal Ferry). [see Jul 4, 1862]
(MC, 6/6/02)
1862 Jun 7, William Mumford became the 1st US citizen to be hanged for treason.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1862 Jun 7, James J. Andrews (b.1829), civilian Union spy, was hanged in Atlanta for leading the April 12 Union raid in Georgia that stole the locomotive “General" in an effort to disrupt Confederate transport. 7 others Union men were also hanged for the raid.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_J._Andrews)
1862 Jun 8, The Army of the Potomac defeated the Confederates at the Battle of Cross Keys, Virginia, during the Peninsula Campaign.
(HN, 6/8/98)
1862 Jun 9, Battle of Port Republic, last of 5 battles in Jackson's Valley camp.
(MC, 6/9/02)
1862 Jun 12, Confederate General J. E. B. Stuart began his ride around the Union Army outside of Richmond, Virginia.
(HN, 6/12/99)
1862 Jun 15, General J.E.B. Stuart completes his "ride around McClellan."
(HN, 6/15/98)
1862 Jun 19, Slavery was outlawed in U.S. territories. President Abraham Lincoln outlined his Emancipation Proclamation. News of the document reached the south and Texas through General Gordon Granger.
(BEP, 1994)(DTnet, 6/19/97)(HN, 6/19/99)
1862 Jun 21, Union and Confederate forces skirmished at the Chickahominy Creek during the Peninsular Campaign.
(HN, 6/21/98)
1862 Jun 24, U.S. intervention saved the British and French at the Dagu forts in China.
(HN, 6/24/98)
1862 Jun 25, The first day of the Seven Days Campaign began with fighting at Oak Grove, Virginia, with Robert E. Lee commanding the Confederate Army for the first time.
(HN, 6/25/98)
1862 Jun 26, General Robert E. Lee attacked McClellan's line at Mechanicsville of day 2 of the Seven Days battle near Richmond, Va.
(HN, 6/26/98)(MC, 6/26/02)
1862 Jun 27, May Irwin, US comedienne, singer (A Hot Time in the Old Town), was born.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1862 Jun 27, Confederates broke through the Union lines at the Battle of Gaines’ Mill on the 3rd day of the Seven Days Battle in Virginia.
(HN, 6/27/98)
1862 Jun 28, At Garnett’s and Golding’s farms, fighting continued for a 4th day between Union and Confederate forces during the Seven Days in Virginia.
(HN, 6/28/98)
1862 Jun 29, Union forces continued to fall back from Richmond, but put up a fight at the Battle of Savage’s Station on day 5 of the 7 Days Battle.
(HN, 6/29/98)(MC, 6/29/02)
1862 Jun 30, The Confederates failed to coordinate their attacks at the Battle of White Oak Swamp, allowing the Union forces to retreat to Malvern Hill in Virginia on Day 6 of the 7 Days-Battle. This battle in Virginia was alternately known as the battle of White Oak Swamp, Frayser’s Farm, Glendale, Charles City Cross Roads, Nelson’s Farm, New Market Cross Roads and Turkey Bend!
(HN, 6/30/98)(HNQ, 3/5/01)(AM, 11/04, p.28)
1862 Jun 30, Julian Scott (16) sustained a hip injury during the Battle of White Oak Swamp. During his nine-month convalescence he developed a friendship with millionaire Henry Clark, who encouraged Scott to develop his artistic talent. After he obtained an honorable discharge from the army, Scott returned to the front to record the war through his art.
(HNQ, 12/20/02)
1862 Jun 30, Gustave Flaubert completed "Salammbo."
(MC, 6/30/02)
1862 Jun, Some 5,000 wounded soldiers came into Richmond after the Battle of Seven Pines.
(AH, 6/02, p.23)
1862 Jun, SF Lawmakers signed a petition to anoint Lazarus (d.1963) and Bummer (d.1865), 2 popular rat catching dogs, as official city property and exempt from the recently passed muzzle law. In 1984 Malcolm E. Barker authored “Bummer & Lazarus: San Francisco’s Famous Dogs."
(SSFC, 1/27/02, p.D6)(SFC, 1/30/04, p.A23)(SSFC, 7/24/11, p.E11)
1862 Jun, Samuel and Florence Baker arrived in Khartoum, Sudan, on their search for explorers John Speke and James Grant.
(ON, 10/01, p.9)
1862 Jul 1, Abraham Lincoln instituted an income tax to pay for the Civil War. The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was founded. Internal Revenue Law imposed federal taxes on inheritance, tobacco & a progressive rate on incomes over $600.
(SFC, 11/2/96, p.D1)(WSJ, 12/15/95, p.A-1)
1862 Jul 1, Pres. Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act.
(SSFC, 9/23/12, p.H3)
1862 Jul 1, The US Congress outlawed polygamy for the 1st time. The Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act, signed by Pres. Lincoln, made polygamy illegal in American territories. It led to the prosecution of over 1300 Mormons. It also granted large tracts of public land to the states with the directive to sell for the support of institutions teaching the mechanical and agricultural arts. It also obligated state male university students to military training. The education initiative resulted in 68 land-grant colleges.
(SFEM, 6/28/98, p.39)(SFEM, 1/30/00, p.8,14)(HNQ, 10/6/02)(MC, 7/1/02)
1862 Jul 1, In day 7 of the 7 Days Battle Union artillery stopped a Confederate attack at Malvern Hill, Virginia. Casualties totaled: US 15,249 and CS 17,583.
(HN, 7/1/98)(MC, 7/1/02)
1862 Jul 1, Czar Alexander II granted Jews the right to publish books.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1862 Jul 2, Lincoln signed an act granting land for state agricultural colleges. [see Jul 1]
(SC, 7/2/02)
1862 Jul 4, Charles Dodgson, an Oxford mathematician whose penname of Lewis Carroll would make him world famous, told little Alice Liddell on a boat trip the fairy tale he had dreamed up for her called "Alice's Adventures Underground." He later wrote it out for her and it became the classic children's tale, "Alice in Wonderland."
(IB, Internet, 12/7/98)
1862 Jul 4, Battle at Green River, Ky. (Morgan's Ohio Raid).
(Maggio, 98)
1862 Jul 4, Battle of Port Royal, SC. (Port Royal Ferry). [see Jun 6, 1862]
(Maggio, 98)
1862 Jul 8, Odore R. Timby patented a revolving gun turret.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1862 Jul 9, Gen. John Hunt Morgan captured Tompkinsville, Ky.
(MC, 7/9/02)
1862 Jul 10, Helene Schjerfbeck (d.1946), Finnish painter, was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helene_Schjerfbeck)
1862 Jul 11, President Abraham Lincoln appointed General Henry Halleck as general in chief of the Federal army. [see Aug 11] Stephen Ambrose later authored "Halleck: Lincoln’s Chief of Staff."
(HN, 7/11/98)(WSJ, 8/20/01, p.A8)
1862 Jul 12, The US Congress authorized the Medal of Honor. Between 1861 and 1999 the medal was awarded to 3,410 members of the US armed forces. The Web site for the US Army Center of Military History: www2.army.mil/cmh-pg/moh1.htm
(AP, 7/12/97)(SFC, 5/31/99, p.A7)
1862 Jul 12, Federal troops occupied Helena, Arkansas.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1862 Jul 13, Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest defeated a Union army at Murfreesboro, Tennessee. [see Aug 13]
(HN, 7/13/98)
1862 Jul 15, Lt. Isaac Brown took the Confederate ironclad C.S.S. Arkansas into the Mississippi River and engaged 3 Union ships near Vicksburg. The CSS Arkansas vs. USS Carondelet and Queen of the West engaged at Yazoo River.
(ON, 10/02, p.12)(MC, 7/15/02)
1862 Jul 16, Ida Bell Wells, first president of the American Negro League, was born.
(HN, 7/16/98)
1862 Jul 16, David G. Farragut became the first rear admiral in the U.S. Navy.
(AP, 7/16/97)
1862 Jul 16, Two Union soldiers and their servant ransacked a house and raped a slave in Sperryville, Virginia.
(HN, 7/16/99)
1862 Jul 17, US army was authorized to accept blacks as laborers.
(MC, 7/17/02)
1862 Jul 17, James Glaisher (52), British meteorologist, rose to some 22,000 over Wolverhampton with balloonist Henry Tracy Coxwell in an attempt to set an altitude record. They reached 24,000 feet in a 2nd attempt on Aug 18. On Sep 5 Glaisher passed out as they reached 29,000 feet. At a record 7 miles Coxwell managed to begin their descent.
(ON, 4/03, p.11)
1862 Jul 19, Nathan Bedford Forrest made his 1st raid.
(MC, 7/19/02)
1862 Jul 20-Sep 20, A guerrilla campaign in GA (Porter's & Poindexter's) left US 580 and CS 2,866 casualties.
(MC, 7/20/02)
1862 Jul 24, Union fleets abandoned their attack on Vicksburg, Miss.
(ON, 10/02, p.12)
1862 Jul 24, Martin Van Buren (79), the eighth president of the United States, died in Kinderhook, N.Y.
(AP, 7/24/97)(HN, 7/24/98)
1862 Jul 29, At Moore’s Mill in Missouri, the Confederates were routed by Union guerrillas.
(HN, 7/29/98)
1862 Jul, The bugle call known as "Taps," originally based on a French bugle signal called "tatoo" was rewritten by Union Gen’l. Daniel Adams Butterfield with the help of an aide and brigade bugler, Oliver W. Norton. Up to then the army’s infantry call to end the day was the French final call: "L’Extinction des feux."
(SFC, 2/4/98, p.E8)
1862 Jul, Another 10 thousand wounded men came into Richmond along with thousands of Federal prisoners.
(AH, 6/02, p.23)
1862 Jul, John Speke and James Grant discovered Ripon Falls at the northern end of Lake Victoria (Uganda), which he identified as the source of the White Nile.
(http://tinyurl.com/qtxrk)
1862 Aug 1, James Henley Thornwell (b.1812), Presbyterian preacher from South Carolina, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Henley_Thornwell)
1862 Aug 2, The US Army Ambulance Corps was established by Maj. Gen. George McClellan.
(HN, 8/2/00)
1862 Aug 2, Union General John Pope captured Orange Court House, Virginia.
(HN, 8/2/98)
1862 Aug 5, Battle of Baton Rouge, LA.
(MC, 8/5/02)
1862 Aug 6, Confederate Army ironclad "Arkansas" was badly damaged in Union attack.
(MC, 8/6/02)
1862 Aug 8, Minnesota’s 5th Infantry fought the Sioux Indians in Redwood, Minn., and 24 soldiers were killed.
(SFC, 2/7/03, p.A23)
1862 Aug 9, Hector Berlioz' opera "Beatrice et Benedict," premiered in Baden-Baden.
(MC, 8/9/02)
1862 Aug 9, At Cedar Mountain, Virginia, Confederate General "Stonewall" Jackson repelled an attack by Union forces. Gen. Charles S. Winder was killed.
(HN, 8/9/98)(MC, 8/9/02)
1862 Aug 11, Carrie James Bond, songwriter who wrote "I Love You Truly" and "A Perfect Day," was born.
(HN, 8/10/98)
1862 Aug 11, President Abraham Lincoln appointed Union General Henry Halleck to the position of general in chief of the Union Army. [see Jul 11]
(HN, 8/10/98)
1862 Aug 12, Gen John Hunt Morgan and his raiders capture Gallatin, TX.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1862 Aug 13, Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest defeated a Union army under Thomas Crittenden at Murfreesboro, Tennessee. [see Jul 13]
(HN, 8/13/98)
1863 Aug 13, Eugene Delacroix (b.1798), French artist, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Delacroix)
1862 Aug 16, Amos Alonzo Stagg, football pioneer, inventor of the tackling dummy, was born in West Orange, New Jersey.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1862 Aug 18, Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart’s headquarters was raided by Union troops of the 5th New York and 1st Michigan cavalries.
(HN, 8/18/98)
1862 Aug 18, A Sioux Uprising began uprising in Minnesota. It resulted in more than 800 white settlers dead and 38 Sioux Indians condemned and hanged. The Minnesota Uprising began when four young Sioux murdered five white settlers at Acton. The Santee Sioux, who lived on a long, narrow reservation on the south side of the Minnesota River, were reacting to broken government promises and corrupt Indian agents. a military court sentenced 303 Sioux to die, but President Abraham Lincoln reduced the list. The 38 hangings took place on December 26, 1862, in Mankato, Minn.
(MC, 8/18/02)(HNQ, 1/4/00)
1862 Aug 22, Claude Debussy (d.1918), composer (La Mer, Clair de Lune), was born in St. Germain-en-Laye.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1862 Aug 22, Santee Sioux attacked Fort Ridgely, Minn.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1862 Aug 24, The C.S.S. Alabama was commissioned at sea off Portugal's Azore Islands, beginning a career that would see over 60 Union merchant vessels sunk or destroyed by the Confederate raider. The ship was built in secret in the in Liverpool shipyards, and a diplomatic crisis between the US government and Britain ensued when the Union uncovered the ship’s birth place.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1862 Aug 25, US Secretary of War authorized Gen. Rufus Saxton to arm 5,000 slaves.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1862 Aug 25, Union and Confederate troops skirmished at Waterloo Bridge, Virginia, during the Second Bull Run Campaign.
(HN, 8/25/98)
1862 Aug 26, Confederate General Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson encircled the Union Army under General John Pope at the Second Battle of Bull Run.
(HN, 8/26/99)
1862 Aug 27, As the Second Battle of Bull Run raged, Confederate soldiers attacked Loudoun County, Virginia.
(HN, 8/27/98)
1862 Aug 28, Mistakenly believing the Confederate Army to be in retreat, Union General John Pope attacks, began the Battle of Groveten. Both sides sustained heavy casualties.
(HN, 8/28/98)
1862 Aug 28, The Battle of Thoroughfare Gap, VA.
(MC, 8/28/01)
1862 Aug 28, Confederate spy Belle Boyd was released from Old Capital Prison in Washington, DC.
(MC, 8/28/01)
1862 Aug 29, P.M.B. Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgium, poet (Blue Bird, Nobel 1911), was born.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1862 Aug 29, The US Bureau of Engraving & Printing began operation.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1862 Aug 29, Union General John Pope’s army was defeated by a smaller Confederate force at the Second Battle of Bull Run.
(HN, 8/29/98)
1862 Aug 30, Union forces were defeated by the Confederates at the Second Battle of Bull Run in Manassas, Va. Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell fought at the Second Battle of Manassas, which was also a Union defeat (the Union army in this case was commanded by Maj. Gen. John Pope). McDowell was then relieved of his command until he was sent to command the Department of the Pacific in 1864, where he finished the war.
(AP, 8/30/97)(HNQ, 7/30/01)
1862 Aug 30, In the Battle of Altamont, Tennessee, Confederates beat Union forces.
(MC, 8/30/01)
1862 Sep 1, A federal tax was levied on tobacco, especially that grown in Confederate states.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1862 Sep 1, Battle at Chantilly (Ox Hill), Virginia, left 2100 casualties.
(AM, 11/04, p.24)
1862 Sep 1, Oliver Tilden of the Bronx was killed in the Civil War in Virginia.
(SC, 9/1/02)
1862 Sep 4, Robert E. Lee's Confederate 50,000-man army invaded Maryland, starting the Antietam Campaign. New York Tribune reporter George Smalley scooped the world with his vivid account of the Battle of Antietam.
(HN, 9/4/98)(MC, 9/4/01)
1862 Sep 5, Lee crossed Potomac & entered Maryland. [see Sep 4]
(MC, 9/5/01)
1862 Sep 6, Stonewall Jackson occupied Frederick, Maryland.
(MC, 9/6/01)
1862 Sep 9, Gen’l. Lee split his army and sent Jackson to capture Harpers Ferry.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1862 Sep 11, O. Henry was born. This was the pen name of William Sydney Porter, short story writer, who wrote "The Gift of the Magi," and "The Last Leaf." The name was taken from a French chemist, Ossian Henry, that he noticed while working at a pharmacy.
(HN, 9/11/98)(SFEC, 9/3/00, Z1 p.2)
1862 Sep 12, The Battle of Harper’s Ferry took place in West Virginia.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1862 Sep 13, Union troops in Frederick, Maryland, discovered General Robert E. Lee’s attack plans for the invasion of Maryland wrapped around a pack of cigars. They gave the plans to General George B. McClellan who did nothing with them for the next 14 hours.
(HN, 9/13/98)
1862 Sep 14, At the battles of South Mountain and Crampton’s Gap, Maryland Union troops smashed into the Confederates as they closed in on what would become the Antietam battleground. Confederates delayed McClellan’s advance against Lee.
(HN, 9/14/98)(AM, 11/04, p.28)
1862 Sep 14, A contingent of Federal troops escaped from the beleaguered Harper's Ferry.
(www.nps.gov/hafe/jackson.htm)
1862 Sep 14, In San Francisco some 3,000 people packed into Platt’s Music Hall at Bush and Montgomery to hear Unitarian minister Starr King (1824-1864) speak on behalf of the Sanitary Commission, a forerunner of the Red Cross. His speech inspired businessmen to raise money and within 5 days $100,000 was raised. In one year California raised some $500,000.
(SFC, 11/30/13, p.C3)
1862 Sep 15, Confederates captured the Union weapon arsenal at Harpers Ferry, WV, securing the rear of Robert E. Lee's forces in Maryland.
(HN, 9/15/99)
1862 Sep 15, John T. Wilder, the Union commander at Munfordville, used unconventional methods to stall Confederate General Braxton Bragg’s advance through Kentucky. On September 15, Bragg arrived to find some 4,000 men behind well-built defenses--far more than he had anticipated. He brought up more units and surrounded the area, but instead of pressing his advantage, agreed to a suggestion made by his subordinate, Maj. Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner. Buckner suggested that he be allowed to parley with the garrison and convince them of the hopelessness of their position. Bragg grudgingly acquiesced.
(HNQ, 4/26/01)
1862 Sep 16, "Fighting Joe" Major General Joseph Hooker’s I Corps crossed Antietam Creek on to strike the Confederates’ left flank.
(HN, 8/12/98)
1862 Sep 17, The Battle of Antietam at Sharpsburg, Maryland, the bloodiest day in US history, commenced. Fighting in the corn field, Bloody Lane and Burnside’s Bridge raged all day as the Union and Confederate armies suffered a combined 26,293 (23,585) casualties. New York Tribune reporter George Smalley scooped the world with his vivid account of the Battle of Antietam, also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg. During the battle an entire Union corps spent most of the bloodiest single day of the Civil War waiting to cross the creek over that bridge, opposed by a contingent of Georgia riflemen. Late in the day Gen. Ambrose Burnside sent his Union troops across the bridge in a major disaster. The rest of the Union IX Corps followed, but by day’s end, a Confederate flank attack sent the corps back across the river. Over 23,000 [23,110] men, both Union and Confederate, were killed or wounded. The battle resulted in about 10,000 Confederate and 12,000 Union casualties. The next day, Robert E. Lee began his retreat back across the Potomac River. 2,108 Union troops and 1,512 Confederates died. In 2002 James M. McPherson authored "Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam: The Battle that changed the Course of the Civil War."
(HN, 9/17/98)(HNPD, 9/17/98)(SFC, 7/7/96, T6)(AP, 9/17/97)(SFC, 9/22/01, p.A3)(WSJ, 9/12/02, p.D8)(WSJ, 9/17/02, p.D8)
1862 Sep 17, Sgt. William McKinley and a single volunteer drove a wagon of hot coffee and warm food through Confederate fire at Antietam to the men of the 23rd Ohio regiment. Col. Rutherford B. Hayes promoted him to lieutenant for his bravery and initiative.
(WSJ, 12/12/03, p.W9)
1862 Sep 17, Battle of Cumberland Gap, Tenn., was evacuated by Federals.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1862 Sep 18, After waiting all day for a Union attack which never came at Antietam, Confederate General Robert E. Lee began a retreat out of Maryland and back to Virginia. At Antietam, George McClellan and his ‘bodyguard’ dawdled throughout a long ‘Fatal Thursday.’
(HN, 9/18/98)
1862 Sep 21, William Benjamin Gould and 7 other black men stole a boat and rowed past Fort Caswell, NC. They were picked up the next day by the Union warship Cambridge. In 2002 Prof. W.B. Gould published his great-grandfather’s diary "Dairy of a Contraband: The Civil War Passage of a Black Sailor."
(SFC, 9/2/02, p.A1)
1862 Sep 21, 300 Indians were sentenced to hang in Mankato, Minnesota.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1862 Sep 22, President Lincoln announced at a cabinet meeting that he intended to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all slaves in rebel states should be free as of Jan. 1, 1863. President Abraham Lincoln brought the issue of freedom to the forefront of the Civil War when he delivered the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet, a few days after the bloody Battle of Antietam. The proclamation stated that slaves in any of the states in rebellion against the Union would be freed if the states had not returned to the Union by January 1, 1863. After that, nearly 180,000 black soldiers enlisted to fight the Confederates until the end of the war.
(SFE Mag., 2/12/95, p. 30)(AP, 9/22/97)(HNPD, 9/22/98)
1862 Sep 23, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation was published in Northern Newspapers.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1862 Sep 24, President Abraham Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus against anyone suspected of being a Southern sympathizer.
(HN, 9/24/98)
1862 Sep 24, The Confederate Congress adopted the confederacy seal.
(MC, 9/24/01)
1862 Sep 27, Louis Botha, commander-in-chief of the Boar Army against the British and first president of South Africa, was born.
(HN, 9/27/98)
1862 Sep 29, Union general Jefferson C. Davis shot and killed a fellow general in a dispute at a hotel during the Civil War. After a series of angry confrontations with General William Nelson, Davis shot his superior officer to death in a Louisville, Kentucky, hotel. Because of the scarcity of officers needed to form a court-martial for a trial, Davis was never charged with the crime and went on to build an extensive Civil War combat record. Davis was of no relation to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
(HNQ, 3/20/00)
1862 Sep, The troops of the 1st Louisiana Native Guards were free black men who lived in New Orleans. When President Abraham Lincoln issued his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation he invited black men in Confederate territory to join the Union army. Union Major General Benjamin Butler immediately mustered the 1st Louisiana Native Guards into Federal service, making them the Union’s first black soldiers. They had volunteered for state service in the Civil War, and served as a home guard unit. When New Orleans fell to Union forces in April 1862, the black troops remained in the city and offered their services to Butler.
(HNQ, 2/21/02)
1862 Oct 2, An Army under Union General Joseph Hooker arrived in Bridgeport, Alabama to support the Union forces at Chattanooga.
(HN, 10/2/98)
1862 Oct 3, At the Battle of Corinth, Mississippi, a Union army defeated the Confederates.
(HN, 10/3/98)
1862 Oct 4, Edward Stratemeyer, author, was born. He created the Hardy Boys, Rover Boys, Nancy Drew and the Bobbsey Twins. The first series of books written/produced by Stratemeyer was The Rover Boys, written under the pseudonym of Arthur M. Winfield. There were 30 volumes, written between 1899 and 1926. The Bobbsey Twins series (Laura Lee Hope) was next, and is the oldest "surviving" series, extending to 72 volumes, written between 1904 and 1979. Tom Swift, attributed to Victor Appleton, began in 1910 and there were 40 volumes before the series ended in 1941. (There was also a Tom Swift, Jr. series, by Victor Appleton II.) The Hardy Boys (Franklin W. Dixon, 85 volumes from 1927 to 1985) and Nancy Drew (Carolyn Keene, 78 volumes from 1930 to 1985) are the other best-known Stratemeyer books.
(HN, 10/4/00)(http://pw2.netcom.com/~drmike99/aboutbobbsey.html)
1862 Oct 4, Battle of Corinth, Mississippi, ended.
(MC, 10/4/01)
1862 Oct 8, The Union was victorious at the Battle of Perryville, the largest Civil War combat to take place in Kentucky.
(HN, 10/8/98)
1862 Oct 8, Otto von Bismarck became German republic chancellor.
(MC, 10/8/01)
1862 Oct 11, The Confederate Congress in Richmond passed a draft law allowing anyone owning 20 or more slaves to be exempt from military service. This law confirmed many southerners opinion that they were in a ‘rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight.’
(HN, 10/11/98)
1862 Oct 12, J.E.B. Stuart completed his "2nd ride around McClellan."
(MC, 10/12/01)
1862 Oct 12, There was a skirmish at Monocacy, Maryland.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1862 Oct 17, Battle of Leetown and Thoroughfare Gap, Va.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1862 Oct 18, Morgan's raiders captured federal garrison at Lexington, Ky.
(MC, 10/18/01)
1862 Oct 18, James Creighton died of ruptured bladder caused from hitting a HR on Oct 14th.
(MC, 10/18/01)
1862 Oct 19, Auguste Lumiere, French film pioneer, was born. He made the 1st film: "Workers Leaving Lumiere Factory."
(MC, 10/19/01)
1862 Oct 22, Union troops pushed 5,000 confederates out of Maysville, Ark., at the Second Battle of Pea Ridge.
(HN, 10/22/98)
1862 Oct 22, Battle at Old Fort Wayne, Indian Territory.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1862 Oct 22, Confederate troops reconquered the Cumberland Gap in Tennessee.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1862 Oct 27, A Confederate force was routed at the Battle of Labadieville, near Bayou Lafourche in Louisiana. John Howard Payne’s haunting ‘Home, Sweet Home’ was the Civil War soldier’s favorite song.
(HN, 10/27/98)
1862 Nov 3, There was a battle between gunboats at Bayou Teche, Louisiana.
(MC, 11/3/01)
1862 Nov 4, Dr. Richard Gatling received patent # 36,836 for his machine gun. In 2008 Julia Keller authored “Mr. Gatling’s Terrible Marvel: The Gun That Changed Everything and the Misunderstood Genius Who Invented It."
(www.civilwarhome.com/gatlinggun.htm)(Econ, 6/14/08, p.102)
1862 Nov 5, President Abraham Lincoln relieved General George McClellan of command of the Union Army of the Potomac and named Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside commander of the Army of the Potomac.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_McClellan)
1862 Nov 7, The body of exiled Bahadur Shah Zafar II was lowered into an unmarked grave in Rangoon (Burma-Myanmar). Zafar II, the last Mughal emperor in India, was deposed in the 1857 sepoy mutiny. In 2006 William Dalrymple authored “The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi, 1857."
(Econ, 11/11/06, p.96)
1862 Nov 9, General US Grant issued orders to bar Jews from serving under him. The order was quickly rescinded.
(MC, 11/9/01)
1862 Nov 11, Verdi's Opera "La Forza Del Destino" premiered in St Petersburg, Russia.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1862 Nov 13, Lewis Carroll wrote in his diary, "Began writing the fairy-tale of Alice—I hope to finish it by Christmas."
(HN, 11/13/00)
1862 Nov 13, Battle of Holly Spring, Miss.
(MC, 11/13/01)
1862 Nov 15, Gerhart Hauptmann, German author (Before Dawn- Nobel 1912), was born.
(MC, 11/15/01)
1862 Nov 17, Union General Burnside marched north out of Washington, D.C. to begin the Fredericksburg Campaign.
(HN, 11/17/98)
1862 Nov 20, Confederate army of Tennessee organized under Gen. Braxton Bragg.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1862 Nov 24, M. Levy published Gustave Flaubert’s "Salammbo."
(MC, 11/24/01)
1862 Nov 27, George Armstrong Custer met his future bride, Elizabeth Bacon, at a Thanksgiving party.
(HN, 11/27/98)
1862 Nov 28, The Battle at Cane Hill, Arkansas, left 475 casualties. In late November, Maj. Gen. Thomas C. Hindman detached Brig. Gen. John Marmaduke's cavalry from Van Buren north to occupy the Cane Hill area. Hearing of this movement, Brig. Gen. James Blunt advanced to meet Marmaduke's command and destroy it, if possible. The Union vanguard encountered Col. Joe Shelby's brigade, which fought a delaying action to protect their supply trains. Shelby gradually gave ground until establishing a strong defensive perimeter on Cove Creek where he repulsed a determined attack. The Federals withdrew to Cane Hill, while the Confederates returned to Van Buren.
(http://www2.cr.nps.gov/abpp/battles/ar004.htm)
1862 Nov 28, Battle of Hooly Spring, Ms.
(MC, 11/28/01)
1862 Nov, Jean Henri Dunant (1828-1910) published "A Memory of Solferino." His ideas about creation of a volunteer committee to care for war-wounded led to the creation in 1863 of the Permanent International Committee for Relief to Wounded Combatants, later called the International Red Cross. Dunant, a Swiss businessman, had witnessed the plight of thousands of wounded left helpless on the battlefield at Solferino, Italy, on June 24, 1859. Organizing local volunteers to help, Dunant brought aid to as many of the victims as he could.
(WUD, 1994, p.442)(HNQ, 9/16/99)(ON, 4/08, p.11)
1862 Dec 1, President Lincoln gave the State of the Union message to the 37th Congress. “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present… As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves."
(WSJ, 9/7/06, p.A20)
1862 Dec 3, Confederate rebels attacked a Federal forage train on the Hardin Pike near Nashville, Tenn.
(HN, 12/3/98)
1862 Dec 5, Union general Ulysses Grant’s cavalry received a setback in an engagement on the Mississippi Central Railroad at Coffeeville, Mississippi.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1862 Dec 6, President Lincoln ordered the hanging of 39 of the 303 convicted Indians who participated in the Sioux Uprising in Minnesota. They were to be hanged on Dec. 26. The Dakota Indians were going hungry when food and money from the federal government was not distributed as promised. They led a massacre that left over 400 white people dead. The uprising was put down and 300 Indians were sentenced to death. Pres. Lincoln reduced the number to 39, who were hanged. The government then nullified the 1851 treaty.
(WSJ, 2/5/98, p.A6)(HN, 12/6/98)
1862 Dec 7, Confederate forces surprise an equal number of Union troops at the Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas.
(HN, 12/7/99)
1862 Dec 8, Georges Feydeau, French playwright (La Dame de Chez Maxim's), was born.
(MC, 12/8/01)
1862 Dec 10, U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill creating the state of West Virginia.
(HN, 12/10/98)
1862 Dec 11, Union General Burnside occupied Fredericksburg and prepared to attack the Confederates under Robert E. Lee.
(HN, 12/11/98)
1862 Dec 12, The Union lost its first ship to a torpedo, the USS Cairo, in the Yazoo River.
(HN, 12/12/98)
1862 Dec 13, Confederate forces dealt Union troops a major defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg, Va. The Battle of Fredericksburg ended at Marye’s Heights with the bloody slaughter of Union troops, while Confederate President Davis reviewed Braxton Bragg’s troops at Murfreesboro, Tenn. Burnside, newly appointed commander of an army of over 120,000, planned to cross the Rappahannock River and advance on the Confederate capital of Richmond. Some 78,000 troops under Confederate General Robert E. Lee took a strong position on the high ground near Fredericksburg, Virginia. Burnside’s assault resulted in over 12,500 casualties for the Union compared with about 5,000 for the entrenched Confederates. Burnside was relieved of command the following month.
(WUD, 1994, p.565)(AP, 12/13/97)(HN, 12/13/98)(HNQ, 10/14/00)
1862 Dec 15, Nathan B. Forrest crossed the Tennessee River at Clifton with 2,500 men to raid the communications around Vicksburg.
(HN, 12/15/98)
1862 Dec 15, In New Orleans, Union Major General Benjamin F. Butler turned his command over to Nathaniel Banks. The citizens of New Orleans held farewell parties for Butler, "The Beast," but only after he had already left. Maj. Gen Benjamin Butler was given the unusual nickname "Spoons" due to his apparent penchant for stealing the silver while occupying New Orleans. He was also called "Beast" for alleged insults to the women in the town. Both the names were coined by Confederates.
(HN, 12/15/98)(HNQ, 7/29/00)
1862 Dec 17, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant issued General Order No. 11 designed to combat a Civil War black market in cotton. Grant believed the trade was run primarily by Jewish traders and ordered Jews expelled in his military district. Pres. Lincoln rescinded the order a few weeks later. In 2012 Jonathan D. Sarna authored “When General Grant Expelled the Jews."
(SSFC, 4/22/12, p.F3)
1862 Dec 18, Grant announced the organization of his army in the West. Sherman, Hurlbut, McPherson, and McClernand would be Corps Commanders.
(HN, 12/18/98)
1862 Dec 18, Nathan B. Forrest engaged and defeated a Federal cavalry force near Lexington in his continued effort to disrupt supply lines.
(HN, 12/18/98)
1862 Dec 18, Samuel and Florence Baker departed Khartoum on their search for explorers John Speke and James Grant.
(ON, 10/01, p.9)
1862 Dec 19, Nathan B. Forrest tore up the railroads in Grant and Rosecrans' rear, causing considerable delays in the movement of Union supplies.
(HN, 12/19/98)
1862 Dec 19, Skirmish at Jackson-Salem Church, Tenn., left 80 casualties.
(MC, 12/19/01)
1862 Dec 20, Battle of Holly Spring, MS. [see Nov 13]
(MC, 12/20/01)
1862 Dec 20, Brig-gen Nathan B. Forrest occupied Trenton, Kentucky.
(MC, 12/20/01)
1862 Dec 20-Jan 3, The Vicksburg campaign.
(MC, 12/20/01)
1862 Dec 21, U.S. Congress authorized the Medal of Honor to be awarded to Navy personnel that had distinguished themselves by their gallantry in action.
(HN, 12/21/98)
1862 Dec 22-Jan 2, Raid on Morgan's: Bardstown to Elizabethtown, Ky.
(MC, 12/22/01)
1862 Dec 23, Union Gen. Ben "Beast" Butler was proclaimed a "felon, outlaw & common enemy of mankind" by Jefferson Davis.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1862 Dec 24, A Christmas present arrived a day early for the Federal troops at Columbus, Ky., in the way of artillery on board the USS New Era.
(HN, 12/24/98)
1862 Dec 25, President and Mrs. Lincoln visited hospitals in the Washington D.C. area on this Christmas Day.
(HN, 12/25/98)
1862 Dec 25, John Hunt Morgan and his raiders clashed with Union forces near Bear Wallow, Kentucky. Fighting also occurred at Green’s Chapel.
(HN, 12/25/99)
1862 Dec 26, In Minnesota 38 Santee Sioux were hanged in Mankato for their part in the Sioux Uprising. This marked the end of the US-Dakota War. In 2012 a memorial was unveiled for the 38 hanged men, the largest mass execution in US history.
(HN, 12/26/98)(SFC, 12/27/12, p.A8)
1862 Dec 26-28, Battle of Dumfries, Va.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1862 Dec 27, Rosecrans’ army moved slowly toward Bragg at Murfreesboro.
(HN, 12/27/98)
1862 Dec 27, Battle of Chickasaw Bluffs, Miss. (Chickasaw Bayou), began.
(MC, 12/27/01)
1862 Dec 27, Battle of Elizabethtown, KY.
(MC, 12/27/01)
1862 Dec 29, Battle of Chickasaw Bayou was fought by Sherman’s troops in order to gain the north side of Vicksburg. Confederate armies defeated Gen. Sherman.
(HN, 12/29/98)(MC, 12/29/01)
1862 Dec 29, The bowling ball was invented.
(MC, 12/29/01)
1862 Dec 30, The draft of the Emancipation Proclamation was finished and circulated around Lincoln's cabinet for comment.
(HN, 12/30/98)
1862 Dec 31, President Lincoln signed an act admitting West Virginia to the Union.
(AP, 12/31/97)
1862 Dec 31, Union General William Rosecrans' army repelled two Confederate attacks at the Battle of Murfreesboro (Stone's River).
(HN, 12/31/98)
1862 Dec 31, The USS Monitor sank in a storm off Cape Hatteras, NC., while being towed by the Rhode Island. 16 officers and seamen died. In 1973 scientists from North Carolina’s Duke University discovered the deteriorating relic 16 miles from the coast, in 240 feet of water. In 1975 the site was designated the nation’s first marine sanctuary, and it was the first shipwreck to be named a National Historic Landmark in the United States. In 2002 the turret was raised.
(SFC, 8/6/02, p.A2)(HNQ, 11/29/02)(ON, 10/08, p.5)
1862 Dec, German-born illustrator Thomas Nast, widely recognized as the father of political cartooning, is also responsible for our modern-day concept of Santa Claus. Nast, who came to the United States from Germany at age 6, received his art education at New York's National Academy of Design. At 15, he began working for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper for $4 a week. During his long career, Nast illustrated major news stories for many periodicals, but he is perhaps best remembered for his imaginative Christmas drawings that first appeared in Harper's Weekly in 1862 and continued for 30 years. Inspired by Clement Moore's poem "Twas the Night Before Christmas," Nast pictured Santa Claus as a jolly, white-bearded elf who lived at the North Pole and brought gifts only to good children. His drawings also portrayed many modern symbols we associate with Christmas--holly, toys under the Christmas tree and the reindeer-drawn sleigh on a snowy roof.
(HNPD, 12/25/99)
1862 Julius Rosenwald (d.1932), later president of Sears, Roebuck & Co., was born in Springfield, Ill. By 1931 he had financed the construction of 5,295 schools throughout the South in association with Booker T. Washington and William Baldwin Jr., a Boston railway executive and founder of the Urban League.
(WSJ, 2/24/98, p.A22)(WSJ, 4/23/02, p.D7)
1862 Claude Monet (22) began studying painting with Charles Gleyre, a retired artist in Paris.
(ON, 9/06, p.6)
1862 Sanford Robinson Gifford painted "Kauterskill Clove, in the Catskills." The 9x8 inch painting was auctioned in 1999 for $475,500 in NYC.
(WSJ, 7/9/99, p.W12)
1862 James Whistler painted his: "Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl," a portrait of his Irish mistress Joanna Hiffernan.
(WSJ, 1/2/06, p.D8)
1862 Mary Elizabeth Braddon published her sensation novel "Lady Audley's Secret." It was the first of its type and became a bestseller. Braddon was a former actress with 5 illegitimate children by a publisher whose wife was locked in an insane asylum.
(WSJ, 3/17/00, p.W8)
1862 William Brewer, surveyor, authored “Up and Down California," a journal based on the first survey of California.
(SSFC, 5/14/06, p.G9)
1862 Victor Hugo published "Les Miserables." The novel covers events in France from 1815 to 1833. In 2004 Mario Vargas Llosa authored his book-length Spanish essay: “The Temptation of the Impossible: Victor Hugo and ‘Les Miserables.’ The English translation came out in 2007.
(WSJ, 4/30/98, p.A17)(SFC, 6/30/07, p.E2)
1862 Jerry Thomas authored “How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant’s Companion." It also became known as the “Bar-Tenders Guide."
(WSJ, 3/10/07, p.P5)
1862 "Fathers and Sons" by Turgenev was published.
(NH, 6/96, p.22)
1862 The most popular song of the year was "Rally ‘Round the Flag."
(NH, 10/98, p.16)
1862 The Glee Club at the Univ. of Pennsylvania was founded by eight undergraduates.
(WSJ, 12/16/96, p.A1)
1862 The Buffalo Fine Arts Academy was founded in Buffalo, NY. In 1905 it opened the Albright-Knox Art Gallery following a generous gift from Buffalo entrepreneur and philanthropist John J. Albright.
(WSJ, 11/15/06, p.D14)(www.albrightknox.org/geninfo.html)
1862 In Napa Valley, Ca., Jacob Schram (1826-1905) purchases 200 acres on Diamond Mountain and founded the Schramsberg Winery. He used Chinese laborers to clear the forests, plant the vineyards and dig the caves to store his wine. In 1965 Jack and Jamie Davies purchased the winery.
(SFEM, 10/27/96, p.40)(SFC, 12/22/05, p.F1)(SFC, 1/18/08, p.A12)
1862 Pres. Lincoln made Andrew Johnson the military governor of Tennessee after Federal forces captured Nashville.
(SFC, 12/21/98, p.A3)
1862 The Washington DC bordello of Mary Ann Hall at 349 Maryland Ave. was rated at the top of a list of 450 brothels catalogued by the office of the federal provost marshal. The city had an estimated 5,000 prostitutes, 18 of whom resided at the 3-story brick Hall house.
(SFEC, 4/18/99, p.A24)
1862 The dark clouds of civil war gathered over the nation as two aggressive factions—the Wide-Awakes and the Minutemen—plotted to gain political control of Missouri and its most important city, St. Louis.
(HN, 7/29/98)
1862 The first US federal tax on beer was levied to finance the Civil War.
(SFC, 8/2/06, p.G7)
1862 The US battleship Monticello crashed trying to get past the US Navy and into Mobile Bay during the Civil War after sailing from Havana. In 1969 Hurricane Camille uncovered wreckage near Fort Morgan, Alabama, that some believed to be the Monticello, though others thought it was a schooner that ran aground in 1933.
(AP, 9/20/08)
1862 Confederate General Earl Van Dorn attacked Union forces at the Mississippi railroad town of Corinth in an effort to help Braxton Bragg’s invasion of Kentucky. With Union interest concentrated chiefly on Bragg’s invasion of Kentucky, Union General Grant’s command was scattered about western Tennessee and northern Mississippi in several garrisons. Impetuous and aggressive (he was a former Indian fighter), Van Dorn evaluated potential objectives before deciding to attack the strongest, the one at Corinth, Miss. Two strategic railroads, the Mobile & Ohio and the Memphis & Charleston, linked up there, and control of the rails was, as always, a paramount concern in the war.
(HNQ, 4/19/01)
1862 The Rhea County Spartans, an all-girl cavalry company in Tennessee, began as a lark during the American Civil War, but soon attracted the attention of unamused Union officers. The Rhea County Girls’ Company was created through a combination of boredom and the desire to be a part of the war for Southern independence. Almost all of the "sidesaddle soldiers" had fathers or brothers in the Confederate military, and the young ladies evidently felt frustrated because their gender prevented them from enlisting. Since they could not actually join the Confederate Army, they did the next best thing: They created an army of their own.
(HNQ, 4/12/01)
1862 The Dakota Indians were going hungry when food and money from the federal government was not distributed as promised. They led a massacre that left over 400 white people dead. The uprising was put down and 300 Indians were sentenced to death. Pres. Lincoln reduced the number to 39, who were hanged. The government then nullified the 1851 treaty.
(WSJ, 2/5/98, p.A6)
1862 The Choctaw Indians issued a 75 cent note and the Cherokee Indians issued a $1 bill.
(SFEC, 1/25/98, Z1 p.8)
1862 Austin, Nevada, was born when a horse kicked loose a rock revealing rich silver ore.
(ACC, 2004)
1862 David Walley of New York discovered natural hot springs about 90 miles south of Carson City.
(SSFC, 12/18/05, p.F4)
1862 The San Francisco Stock and Bond Exchange was established by 19 founding members as a marketplace for mining company stocks following the Comstock Lode strike.
(SSFC, 1/25/04, p.I3)
1862 The Corners area by Mt. Diablo, Ca., changed its name to Walnut Creek following the arrival of a post office.
(SFCM, 8/24/03, p.7)(SFC, 7/17/06, p.B5)
1862 In southern California Isaias Hellman founded the first synagogue in Los Angeles. It became the Wilshire Boulevard Reform Temple.
(SSFC, 11/30/08, Books p.3)
1862 Rogers, Smith & Co. of New Haven, Conn., organized to manufacture silver-plated holloware. The company was sold in 1863 to Meriden Britannia Co., but the New Haven operation continued to 1877.
(SFC, 11/29/06, p.G3)
1862 Frederick August Otto Schwartz (FAO Schwartz) opened up a toy shop in Baltimore 6 years after arriving in America from Germany. In 1870 he moved to New York. In 1880 he moved to larger quarters on Union Square.
(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.F3)(WSJ, 11/21/03, p.B1)
1862 Merck patented cocaine.
(WSJ, 3/14/00, p.A20)
1862 Mary Jane Patterson (1840-1894) received a degree from Oberlin College, Ohio, becoming the 1st black female college graduate in the US.
(SSFC, 2/15/04, p.C6)
1862 In Lone Pine, Ca., settlers shot it out with a local band of Paiute Indians. 11 Paiutes were killed and 2 settlers were wounded.
(SFEC, 8/17/97, p.T9)
1862 The Pacific Mail Co.'s Golden Gate steamer sank off Manzanillo. An English salvage company recovered gold bullion and artifacts in 1928.
(SFC, 6/20/03, p.E2)
1862 The British Schooner Alma was captured off the coast of North Carolina by the US brig Perry. She is today called the Australia and is owned by the Woodfield Fish and Oyster Co., of Galesville, Maryland.
(NG, Sept. 1939, J. Maloney p.356)
1862 In Australia Scotsman explorer John McDouall Stuart crossed the continent from Adelaide to Port Darwin.
(HNQ, 5/26/98)
1862 In Austria Julius Meinl founded a coffee and food store that developed into a chain and later Meinl Bank.
(Econ, 8/2/08, p.74)
1862 Britain legislated a Companies Act that defined the limited-liability joint stock company, and removed the restriction that they be established by an act of Parliament.
(WSJ, 5/7/03, p.D10)
1862 In Britain Lord Kelvin presented his theoretical calculation of the energy storage capacity of the sun. The calculation led to an estimate of the sun’s age- later called Kelvin time. His estimate was way too low due to lack of knowledge on atomic energy.
(I&I, Penzias, p.157)
1862 William Banting, a London undertaker, was the first dieter on record. He went from 253 pounds to 153 on lean meat, fish and fruit.
(SFEC, 2/14/99, Z1 p.8)
1862 John Hanning Speke found a river that issued from Lake Victoria to the north and impetuously cabled the Royal Geographic Society in London, "...the Nile is settled."
(NG, May 1985, R. Caputo, p.629)
1862 The East India House in London, headquarters of the East India Company, was demolished.
(Econ, 12/17/11, p.111)
1862 By this time 75% of Britain’s cotton originated in India.
(Econ, 1/3/15, p.68)
1862 In Canada Billy Barker, a former British sailor, struck gold in an area called Williams Creek in British Columbia (Canada). The strike gave birth to the town of Barkerville.
(SSFC, 4/7/13, p.P4)
1862 Facundo Bacardi Masso founded a rum business in Cuba.
(SFC, 9/9/08, p.E3)
1862 Empress Eugenie opened Le Grand Hotel in Paris to celebrate French science and art.
(Econ, 12/21/13, p.101)
1862 Walter Murray Gibson arrived at Lanai, Ha., to reorganize a Mormon colony and bought one chief-owned plot for the church. Gibson was later excommunicated for keeping the property in his name. He later bought other chief-owned lands and leased property for sheep and goat ranching.
(SFC, 6/27/12, p.D6)
1862 The Baymen, named after the Bay of Honduras, sought protection from their Spanish-speaking neighbors as a British colony, British Honduras.
(SFEC, 6/1/97, p.T3)
1862 Two New Zealanders, who married Hawaiian women, obtained a deed to Palmyra Atoll from King Kamehameha V.
(SFC, 5/4/00, p.A9)
1862 Francisco Solano Lopez (c1826-1870) became president of Paraguay following the death of his father, Carlos Antonio Lopez..
(http://reference.allrefer.com/encyclopedia/L/Lopez-Fr.html)(Econ, 12/22/12, p.46)
1862 Peruvian slavers arrived on Easter Island. Slaves that eventually returned brought smallpox.
(SSFC, 9/18/05, p.E14)
1862 Baron James Forester, a wealthy Scottish port wine shipper, capsized on the Douro River in Portugal and was dragged to the river bottom by his money belt full of gold coins.
(SFEC, 1/12/97, p.T7)
1862 An earthquake in Russia’s Lake Baikal region put 200 square km of lakeshore under water.
(Econ, 7/19/03, p.41)
1862 In Glasgow, Scotland, the Kelvinside Parish Church was built. It was later converted to Oran Mor, a west end performing arts center.
(SSFC, 2/10/13, p.H4)
1862 Swiss immigrants settled in Montevideo, Uruguay, and formed an agricultural community known as the Colonia Suiza.
(Hem., 2/96, p.26)
1862-1863 Louisa May Alcott, American author, went to Washington, D.C., in the winter to serve as a nurse in the newly established United States Sanitary Commission. She tended wounded soldiers, but after only a few weeks she became ill. In accordance with army medical practice of the time, Alcott was given large doses of calomel, an emetic containing mercury, which rendered her a semi-invalid. Alcott was a semi-invalid for the last 20 years of life.
(HNQ, 12/29/98)
1862-1868 Bartolome Mitre served as Argentina’s 1st constitutional president.
(WSJ, 1/9/02, p.A14)
1862-1877 In China the Dungan Revolt was a mainly ethnic war also known as the Hui Minorities War. The revolt arose over a pricing dispute involving bamboo poles, when a Han merchant selling to a Hui did not receive the amount demanded for the goods. Total casualties of the conflict were estimated at 8-12 million.
(http://tinyurl.com/ldphn6h)
1862-1893 David and John Jacob Decker founded and ran the Decker Bros. piano manufacturing firm. Their first piano patent was issued in 1859.
(SFC, 10/15/97, Z1 p.7)
1862-1906 Bitters bottles were manufactured in Tiffin, Ohio and Omaha, Neb. to hold "American Life Bitters," an alcoholic concoction of herbs and gin that was marketed as medicine.
(SFC, 6/3/98, Z1 p.6)
1862-1910 William Sydney Porter (aka O. Henry), American short story writer: "Inject a few raisins of conversation into the tasteless dough of existence."
(WUD, 1994, p.1120)(AP, 6/15/97)
1862-1922 Mori Ogai, Japanese writer. His work included "The Wild Goose."
(MT, Fall ‘96, p.15)
1862-1935 William Ashley "Billy" Sunday, American baseball player turned evangelist, is said to have said: If there is no Hell, a good many preachers are obtaining money under false pretenses. "Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you an automobile."
(AP, 10/19/97)(AP, 12/20/98)
1862-1944 Gerald Stanley Lee, American clergyman and author: "America is a tune. It must be sung together."
(AP, 3/3/99)
1862-1944 Nellie Simmons Meier, famous American palm reader. She lived most of her life in Indianapolis and studied the palms of such people as actress Mary Pickford, boxer Gene Tunney, Eleanor Roosevelt, Susan B. Anthony, and Amelia Erhart. She donated her palm prints to the Library of Congress in 1938 after publishing her 1937 best seller Lion’s Paws, a set of character sketches based on the palm prints.
(Civil., Jul-Aug., ‘95, p.54-57)
1862-1947 Nicholas Murray Butler, American educator. "Time was invented by Almighty God in order to give ideas a chance." "The force that rules the world is conduct, whether it be moral or immoral."
(AP, 4/5/97)(AP, 1/13/99)
1862-1956 In Grass Valley, California, the Idaho-Maryland gold mine produced about 2.4 million ounces of gold. The nearby Empire Mine produced 5.8 million ounces. In 2007 plans were underway for re-opening the Idaho-Maryland mine.
(WSJ, 11/9/07, p.B2)
1863 Jan, 1, All slaves held in rebellion territory in USA were made free by Abraham Lincoln's Sep 22, 1862, Emancipation Proclamation.
(HFA, ‘96, p.22)(V.D.-H.K.p.275)(AP, 1/1/98)(HN, 1/1/99)
1863 Jan 1, Confederate General Braxton Bragg and Union General William Rosecrans readjusted their troops as the Battle of Murfreesboro continued.
(HN, 1/1/99)
1863 Jan 1, The clipper ship Noonday hit an uncharted rock off the coast of San Francisco and sank in 240 feet of water. All hands were rescued and the rock was named Noonday.
(SFC, 9/17/14, p.A10)
1863 Jan 2, In the second day of hard fighting at Stone's River, near Murfreesboro, Tenn., Union troops defeated the Confederates. The battle, which began Dec 31, involved 80,000 troops and left 24,000 casualties.
(HN, 1/2/99)(AM, 11/04, p.28)
1863 Jan 4, General Halleck, by direction of President Lincoln, ordered U.S. Grant to revoke his infamous General Order No. 11 that expelled Jews from his operational area.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1863 Jan 4, Roller skates with 4 wheels were patented by James Plimpton of NY.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1863 Jan 8, Construction on the Central Pacific Railroad from Sacramento heading east was started. With pull from Gov. Leland Stanford, extensive government backing was obtained along with federal land grants in California that totaled 11.6 million acres, 11.4% of the state. $59 mil in 30-year railroad bonds was backed by the government and not paid back until 1909. The Northern Pacific Railroad was built by Nelson Bennett
(SFC, 7/8/96, p.D2)(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A22)
1863 Jan 10, London's Metropolitan, the world's first underground passenger railway, opened to the public. The first stretch of rail had opened the day before. It was nationalized in 1948. In 2004 Christian Wolmar authored “The Subterranean Railway: How the London Underground was Built and How it Changed the City Forever."
(AP, 1/10/98)(HN, 1/10/99)(Econ, 1/22/05, p.81)(AP, 1/9/13)
1863 Jan 11, Union forces captured Arkansas Post, or Ft. Hindman, Arkansas.
(MC, 1/11/02)
1863 Jan 11, The Confederate ship Alabama under Capt. Semmes flew a British flag and lured the USS Hatteras out of Galveston harbor. The Hatteras was quickly sunk.
(ON, 9/01, p.10)
1863 Jan 12, President Davis delivered his "State of Confederacy" address.
(MC, 1/12/02)
1863 Jan, 13, The black 1st Kansas Regiment was mustered in as a battalion.
(Smith., 4/95, p.14)
1863 Jan 13, Thomas Crapper pioneered a one-piece pedestal flushing toilet.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1863 Jan 17, David Lloyd George (d.1945), British Prime Minister, was born. First Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, English statesman: "It is always too late, or too little, or both. And that is the road to disaster."
(AP, 8/13/97)(HN, 1/17/99)
1863 Jan 22, In an attempt to out flank Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, General Ambrose Burnside led his army on a march north to Fredericksburg, but foul weather bogged his army down in what became known as "Mud March."
(HN, 1/22/99)
1863 Jan 22, The interim Lithuanian government in Warsaw announced an uprising against Russian rule. The uprising aspired to restore the Polish-Lithuanian state and was supported by large numbers of peasants.
(DrEE, 9/14/96, p.4)(LHC, 1/22/03)
1863 Jan 25, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker assumed command and undertook the reorganization of the demoralized Army of the Potomac. He commanded the Army of the Potomac during the Battle of Chancellorsville. By April, he thought he was ready to face Lee‘s Army of Northern Virginia. [see Jan 26]
(HNQ, 9/20/00)
1863 Jan 25, Battle of Kingston, NC.
(MC, 1/25/02)
1863 Jan 25, James Morrill (1824-1865), a British citizen, ended years of living among Australian Aborigines after a shipwreck in 1846.
(http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/morrill-james-2484)
1863 Jan 26, President Lincoln named General Joseph Hooker to replace Burnside as commander of the Army of the Potomac. [see Jan 25]
(HN, 1/26/99)
1863 Jan 31, The 1st South Carolina Volunteers, later called the 33rd U.S. Colored Troops was officially recognized. Components of the regiment had been in training since early 1962.
(Smith., 4/95, p.14)(MC, 1/31/02)
1863 Feb 1, A committee in Vilnius issued a manifesto and took up a leadership role for a national revolution.
(LHC, 2/1/03)
1863 Feb 3, Samuel Clemens became Mark Twain for 1st time. In Nevada the Territorial Enterprise in Comstock printed some humorous letters from a reader named “Josh." The editor hired the man, who was Samuel Clemens, for $25 a week. Clemens accepted and changed his pen name to Mark Twain. Sam had dropped the penname "Josh" and first signed himself "Mark Twain" in a letter written on January 31, 1863. The Territorial Enterprise published the letter in its Tuesday, February 3, 1863 issue (http://www.twainquotes.com/18630203t.html).
(SFEC, 3/8/98, BR p.6)
1863 Feb 9, A fire extinguisher was patented by Alanson Crane.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1863 Feb 9, Henri Dunant (1828-1910) addressed the Geneva Society for Public Welfare and asked the members to form a volunteer society to aid wounded soldiers. The Intl. Committee of Red Cross (Nobel 1917, 1944, 1963) was formed in Geneva, Switz. The red cross design based on the Swiss flag with the colors reversed.
(ON, 4/08, p.11)(www.redcross.org)(SFC, 6/20/06, p.A4)
1863 Feb 10, P.T. Barnum’s star midgets, Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren, are married.
(HN, 2/10/97)
1863 Feb 15, Samuel and Florence Baker encountered John Speke and James Grant at the frontier village of Gondokoro (southern Sudan). Speke and Grant said they had found the Nile’s headwaters at a lake they named Victoria (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda).
(ON, 10/01, p.9)
1863 Feb 24, Arizona was organized as a territory.
(AP, 2/24/98)
1863 Feb 24, Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest made a raid on Brentwood, Tennessee.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1863 Feb 25, The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) was created as a bureau of the US Department of the Treasury by the National Currency Act. The OCC was charged with responsibility for organizing and administering a system of nationally chartered banks and a uniform national currency. It was passed to create a market in government bonds needed to finance the Civil War. The act required that bank notes issued by commercial banks be uniform in appearance and that 90% be backed by collateral consisting of US Treasury securities. [see 1881-1890, currency decline] Prior to the Civil War virtually the only currency was local and issued by banks. The government issued "greenbacks" to finance the Civil War." The 1863 NCA was superseded by the National Bank Act of 1864.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Bank_Act)(WSJ,11/24/95, p.A-8)(WSJ, 6/27/96, p.B1)(Wired, 10/96, p.143)(WSJ, 1/13/98, p.A1)
1863 Feb 26, Pres. Lincoln signed a National Currency Act.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1863 Feb 28, Four Union gunboats destroyed the CSS Nashville near Fort McAllister, Ga. Popular during the Crimean War, the floating battery was revived by hard-pressed Confederates because the popular gunboats were not capable of doing the things that the batteries could do.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1863 Mar 2, The US Congress passed the False Claims Act to protect the government from being ripped off by suppliers outfitting the Union army. It is often referred to as the "Lincoln Law," because it was passed under the administration of President Abraham Lincoln.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_Claims_Act)(Econ, 8/30/14, p.22)
1863 Mar 2, Congress authorized track width of 4'-8½" for Union Pacific RR.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1863 Mar 3, President Abraham Lincoln signed the conscription act compelling U.S. citizens to report for duty in the Civil War or pay $300.00. 86,724 men paid the exemption cost to avoid service. The inequality of this arrangement led to the Draft Riots in New York.
(HN, 3/3/99)(HNQ, 10/18/00)(SSFC, 2/8/15, p.N5)
1863 Mar 3, Abraham Lincoln approved a charter for National Academy of Sciences.
(www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ABOUT_main_page)
1863 Mar 3, Free city delivery of mail was authorized by the U.S. Postal Service on this day. It replaced zone postage and 449 letter carriers were hired.
(HC, Internet, 3/3/98)(SC, 3/3/02)
1863 Mar 3, Congress authorized a US mint at Carson City, NV, and Gold certificates as currency.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1863 Mar 3, Federal ironclad ships bombed Fort McAllister, Georgia.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1863 Mar 3, Idaho Territory formed.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1863 Mar 4, Battle of Thompson's Station, Tennessee.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1863 Mar 9, U.S. Grant was appointed commander-in-chief of the Union forces.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1863 Mar 11, A naval engagement occurred between the CSS Alabama and the USS Hatteras.
(HN, 3/11/98)
1863 Mar 11, Union troops under General Ulysses S. Grant gave up their preparations to take Vicksburg after failing to pass Fort Pemberton, north of Vicksburg.
(HN, 3/11/99)
1863 Mar 11, A Lithuanian ruling group replaced a committee for the lead in an uprising.
(LHC,3/11/03)
1863 Mar 12, President Jefferson Davis delivered his State of the Confederacy address.
(HN, 3/12/98)
1863 Mar 14, Asbury Harpending (24) of Kentucky, Ridgely Greathouse of Kentucky and Alfred Rubery of Britain set sail from San Francisco with 20 fighting men aboard the J.M. Chapman on an expedition to intercept outbound Panama steamers loaded with gold and silver and send the money to the Confederacy. They were quickly intercepted, taken to Alcatraz, and found guilty of high treason. Harpending was granted amnesty after four months in jail.
(SFC, 3/15/14, p.D2)
1863 Mar 17, The Battle of Kelly's Ford, Va., was fought.
(http://americancivilwar.com/statepic/va/va029.html)
1863 Mar 18, Confederate women rioted in Salisbury, N.C. to protest the lack of flour and salt in the South.
(HN, 3/18/00)
1863 Mar 20, Battle of Pensacola, Florida- evacuated by Federals.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1863 Mar 25, US Sec. of War Edward Stanton awarded Corp. William Pittenger of the 2nd Ohio Regiment and 5 other Union soldiers the first US Medals of Honor. Pittenger had been a member of Andrews Raiders who stole the locomotive “General" in Georgia on April 12, 1862. Civilian spy James Andrews and 7 other were hanged in 1862 following a Confederate court martial.
(ON, 8/08, p.12)
1863 Mar 25, There was a skirmish at Brentwood, Tennessee.
(MC, 3/25/02)
1863 Mar 26, Samuel and Florence Baker departed Gondokoro (southern Sudan) to find a lake called Luta N’Zige, through which flowed a branch of the Nile.
(ON, 10/01, p.9)
1863 Mar 26, Henry Royce, founder (Rolls-Royce Limited in 1884), was born. [see Mar 27]
(SS, 3/26/02)
1863 Mar 26, Voters in West Virginia approved the gradual emancipation of slaves.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1863 Mar 27, Sir Henry Royce, Rolls Royce founder, was born. [see Mar 26]
(HN, 3/27/98)
1863 Mar 27, Confederate Pres. Jefferson Davis called for this to be a day of fasting and prayer.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1863 Mar 31, Battle of Grand Gulf, MS & Dinwiddie Court House, VA.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1863 Apr 1, First wartime conscription law went into effect in the U.S.
(HN, 4/1/98)
1863 Apr 2, In Richmond, Va., a large crowd of hungry women from one of Richmond's working-class neighborhoods demanded bread from Governor John Letcher. When the governor did not respond favorably to the rioters' demands, the women marched down Main Street, shouting "Bread" as they made their way to the commissary, where they smashed store windows and grabbed food and anything else they could get their hands on. Not until the mob faced President Davis and his troops did the rampage end. Varina Howell Davis wrote an account of the riots after her husbands death in 1889.
(HNQ, 5/8/02)(AH, 6/02, p.24)
1863 Apr 7, Battle of Charleston, SC. The Federal fleet attack on Fort Sumter failed.
(MC, 4/7/02)
1863 Apr 10, Rebel Gen. Earl Van Dorn attacked at Franklin, Tenn.
(MC, 4/10/02)
1863 Apr 11, Battle of Suffolk, VA (Norfleet House).
(MC, 4/11/02)
1863 Apr 12-14, Gunboat battle at Bayou Teche, Louisiana.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1863 Apr 13, Battle of Irish Bend, LA (Ft. Bisland). (MC, 4/13/02)
1863 Apr 13, Hospital for Ruptured and Crippled in NY became the 1st orthopedic hospital.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1863 Apr 14, William Bullock patented a continuous-roll printing press.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1863 Apr 24, The Lieber code, also known as Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field, General Order № 100, was signed by Pres. Abraham Lincoln. It was named after the German-American jurist and political philosopher Francis Lieber and dictated how soldiers should conduct themselves in war time. It set a new norm of respect for private property.
(Econ, 4/10/10, p.64)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lieber_Code)
1863 Apr 24, California’s “Act to Provide for Improvement and Protection of Wharves, Docks, and Waterfront in the City and Harbor of San Francisco" was signed by Gov. Leland Stanford. It established the Board of State Harbor Commissioners, an agency with the sole purpose of running the port of San Francisco.
(SSFC, 4/28/13, p.A2)(http://sfheritage.org/03StateHarbor.pdf)
1863 Apr 24, Skirmish at Okolona, Birmingham, Mississippi (Grierson's Raid).
(MC, 4/24/02)
1863 Apr 27, Battle of Streight's raid: Tuscumbia to Cedar Bluff, AL.
(MC, 4/27/02)
1863 Apr 27, The Army of the Potomac began marching on Chancellorsville.
(HN, 4/27/98)
1863 Apr 29, William Randolph Hearst (d.1951), American newspaper publisher, was born. He helped launch the Spanish-American War. "Any man who has the brains to think and the nerve to act for the benefit of the people of the country is considered a radical by those who are content with stagnation and willing to endure disaster." In 1998 Ben Proctor authored "William Randolph Hearst – The Early Years, 1863-1910."
(HN, 4/29/99)(SFEM, 12/12/98, p.8)(AP, 5/1/99)
1863 Apr 29, Battle of Chancellorsville, VA., (Fredericksburg, Wilderness Tavern). [see May 1]
(MC, 4/29/02)
1863 May 1, Confederate congress passed a resolution to kill black Union soldiers.
(HN, 5/1/98)
1863 May 1, Confederate "National Flag" replaced "Stars & Bars."
(MC, 5/1/02)
1863 May 1, The beginning of the Battle of Chancellorsville, Va., in the East and the Battle Port Gibson in the west. The new Union commander, ‘Fighting Joe’ Hooker, planned to encircle Robert E. Lee at the Virginia crossroads hamlet of Chancellorsville.
(HN, 5/1/98)
1863 May 2, The Confederates smashed Hooker's flank and won a smashing victory at Chancellorsville, Virginia. Confederate Gen’l. Stonewall Jackson was shot by friendly fire as he returned to his lines; he died eight days later. Captain J. Keith Boswell, an officer with Jackson, was also shot and killed.
(HT, 3/97, p.48)(AP, 5/2/99)(HN, 5/2/99)
1863 May 3, Stonewall Jackson’s arm was amputated and buried. Jackson told his medical director, Dr. Hunter McGuire, "If the enemy does come, I am not afraid of them; I have always been kind to their wounded, and I am sure they will be kind to me." His words followed an order from Robert E. Lee to move Jackson to Guiney's Station, fearing that nearby Federal troops might capture him. Following perhaps his greatest performance, leading a brilliant flanking maneuver against Union Major General Joseph Hooker at Chancellorsville, he was mistakenly shot by his own troops while scouting ahead of their lines after dark. Jackson sustained severe wounds to the left arm and minor wounds to the right hand that later led to his death.
(HT, 3/97, p.52)(HNQ, 3/11/02)
1863 May 3, In Virginia the Battle of Chancellorsville raged for a second day, as Confederate General Robert E. Lee parried Union General Joseph T. Hooker's thrusts. [see May 1-2]
(HN, 5/3/00)
1863 May 4, Battle of Chancellorsville ended when the Union Army retreated.
(HN, 5/4/98)
1863 May 4, War correspondents Richard T. Colburn, Junius H. Brown and Albert Dean Richardson were captured enroute to Grant’s headquarters by a Confederate patrol near Vicksburg, Miss. Colburn was soon released but Brown and Richardson were sent to Libby Prison in Richmond, Va., and later to Salisbury Prison in North Carolina. They managed to escape in Dec 1864 and arrived in Knoxville, Tenn., on Jan 13, 1865.
(ON, 4/03, p.12)
1863 May 5, Battle of Tupelo, MS.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1863 May 10, Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson (39) died 8 days after being shot by friendly fire at Chancellorsville, Virginia. He had been a professor at the Virginia Military Institute. Many historians believe that he was the greatest commander of the Civil War. Stonewall Jackson has three graves. Jackson‘s left arm, amputated after it was shot twice during the Battle of Chancellorsville, has its own grave near Chancellorsville, Virginia. Lexington, Virginia, where he had lived with his wife, is the site of his original resting place and the nearby monument where his remains were later moved. James I. Robertson published a biography of Jackson in 1997: "Stonewall Jackson: The Man, the Soldier, the Legend."
(SFC, 7/4/96, p.D8)(HT, 3/97, p.48)(HNQ, 2/22/01)
1863 May 12, With a victory at the Battle of Raymond, Mississippi, Grant closed in on Vicksburg.
(SC, internet, 5/12/97)(HN, 5/12/99)
1863 May 13, The 54th Massachusetts was mustered in and was the first black regiment recruited in the North; it suffered 109 battle deaths in the war.
(Smith., 4/95, p.14)
1863 May 14, Union General Nathaniel Banks took his army out of Alexandria, Louisiana, and headed towards Port Hudson along the Mississippi River. The fort was considered the second most important strategic location on the river, after Vicksburg.
(HN, 5/14/99)
1863 May 14, Battle of Jackson, MS.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1863 May 16, At the Battle of Champion's Hill, in Mississippi, the bloodiest action of the Vicksburg Campaign, Union General Ulysses S. Grant repulsed the Confederates, driving them into Vicksburg.
(HN, 5/16/99)
1863 May 17, Union General Ulysses Grant continued his push towards Vicksburg at the Battle of the Big Black River Bridge in Mississippi.
(HN, 5/17/99)
1863 May 18, Siege of Vicksburg, MS.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1863 May 19, Union General Ulysses S. Grant's first attack on Vicksburg, Miss., was repulsed.
(HN, 5/19/99)
1863 May 21, The siege on Port Hudson, Louisiana, began.
(HN, 5/21/98)
1863 May 22, The US War Dept. established the Bureau of Colored Troops.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1863 May 22, U.S. Grant’s second attack on Vicksburg, Miss., failed and a siege began.
(HN, 5/22/98)
1863 May 24, Bushwackers led by Captain William Marchbanks attacked a Federal militia party in Nevada, Missouri.
(HN, 5/24/99)
1863 May 25, Federal authorities in Tennessee turned over former Ohio congressman Clement L. Vallandigham to the Confederates. President Abraham Lincoln had changed his sentence to banishment from the United States after his conviction of expressing alleged pro-Confederate sentiments.
(HN, 5/25/99)
1863 May 27, Siege of Port Hudson, LA. [see May 21]
(MC, 5/27/02)
1863 May 28, The 54th Massachusetts, the first black regiment from the North, left Boston headed for Hilton Head, South Carolina, to fight in the Civil War.
(AP, 5/28/97)(HN, 5/28/99)
1863 Jun 2, Felix Weingartner, conductor (Zara, Dalmatia), was born in Germany.
(SC, 6/2/02)
1863 Jun 3, Gen. Lee, with 75,000 Confederates, launched a second invasion of the North. On June 3rd, Lee led his troops into Maryland and then Pennsylvania, to meet the Army of the Potomac again, this time around a small town called Gettysburg.
(HNQ, 9/22/00)
1863 Jun 4, David Batchelder and a group of 27 armed men sailed from San Francisco to the Farallon Islands in 3 boats to challenge the Egg Co. for bird eggs. One man was killed and another died of wounds a few days later. In 1995 Peter White authored “The Farallon Islands: Sentinels of the Golden Gate."
(SFC, 5/25/13, p.C3)
1863 Jun 5, CSS Alabama captured the Talisman in the Mid-Atlantic.
(HN, 6/5/98)
1863 Jun 5, Battle of Franklin's Crossing, VA (Deep Run).
(MC, 6/5/02)
1863 Jun 7, Mexico City was captured by French troops.
(HN, 6/7/98)
1863 Jun 8, Residents of Vicksburg, Miss., fled into caves as Grant’s army began shelling the town.
(HN, 6/8/98)
1863 Jun 9, At the Battle of Brandy Station in Virginia, Union and Confederate cavalries clashed. This was the largest cavalry battle in the Civil War.
(HN, 6/9/01)
1863 Jun 10, At the Battle of Brice's Crossroads in Mississippi, Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest with 3,500 troops defeated the Union troops of 8,000.
(HN, 6/10/98)(MC, 6/10/02)
1863 Jun 13, Confederate forces on their way to Gettysburg clashed with Union troops at the Second Battle of Winchester, Virginia.
(HN, 6/13/98)
1863 Jun 15, The 2nd battle at Winchester, Va., ended in Federal defeat with 1350 casualties.
(MC, 6/15/02)
1863 Jun 17, On the way to Gettysburg, Union and Confederate forces skirmished at Point of Rocks, Maryland.
(HN, 6/17/98)
1863 Jun 17, Battle of Aldie: Confederates failed to drive back Union in Virginia.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1863 Jun 17, Travelers Insurance Co. of Hartford, the 1st accident insurer, was chartered.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1863 Jun 18, After repeated acts of insubordination, General John McClernand was relieved by General Ulysses S. Grant during the siege of Vicksburg.
(HN, 6/18/98)
1863 Jun 19, Battle at Middleburg Virginia (100+ casualties).
(DTnet, 6/19/97)
1863 Jun 20, West Virginia became the 35th state.
(AP, 6/20/97)
1863 Jun 21, In the second day of fighting, Confederate cavalry failed to dislodge a Union force at the Battle of LaFourche Crossing in Louisiana.
(HN, 6/21/00)
1863 Jun 23, Confederate forces overwhelmed a Union garrison at the Battle of Brasher City in Louisiana.
(HN, 6/23/99)
1863 Jun 24, Planning an invasion of Pennsylvania, Lee's army crossed the Potomac.
(MC, 6/24/02)
1863 Jun 25, Pres. Lincoln chose US General George Meade to replace General Hooker, hoping he would be more aggressive. [see Jun 28]
(MC, 6/25/02)
1863 Jun 26, Jubal Early and his Confederate forces moved into Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
(HN, 6/26/98)
1863 Jun 27, There was a skirmish at Fairfax Courthouse in Virginia.
(MC, 6/27/02)
1863 Jun 28, General Meade replaced General Hooker three days before the Battle of Gettysburg. General George Gordon Meade said "Well, I’ve been tried and condemned without a hearing, and I suppose I shall have to go to execution," in response to his appointment as head of the Union Army of the Potomac during the Civil War. Within a week his army won the Battle of Gettysburg, assuring Meade of a record of success superior to all of his predecessors.
(HN, 6/28/98)(HNQ, 2/25/02)
1863 Jun 28, Officers of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia’s Second Corps were looking at Harrisburg through field glasses from across the Susquehanna River just a day or two before a developing battle at Gettysburg called them away. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the Keystone State’s capital was a major hub for rail traffic from every direction. Consequently, it was also the point through which the hard, slow-burning coal used by ships, locomotives, and furnaces traveled on its way from the mines of north central Pennsylvania to military and industrial customers. Philadelphia, an important ocean port east of Harrisburg and connected to it by rail, would have been virtually defenseless against an attack from its landward side. If Lee had taken Harrisburg, he would also have been perfectly positioned to threaten Washington, D.C., from the north.
(HNQ, 3/5/02)
1863 Jun 29, Battle at Westminster, Maryland: Federal assault.
(MC, 6/29/02)
1863 Jun 29, George A. Custer (23) was appointed Union Brevet Brig-general.
(MC, 6/29/02)
1863 Jun 29, Lee ordered his forces to concentrate near Gettysburg, PN.
(MC, 6/29/02)
1863 Jun 30, Union and Confederate cavalries clashed at Hanover, Pennsylvania.
(HN, 6/30/98)
1863 Jul 1, The opening shot at the Battle of Gettysburg was at 7:30 a.m. In the first day's fighting at Gettysburg, Federal forces retreated through the town and dug in at Cemetery Ridge and Cemetery Hill. Gen. Robert E. Lee's ordered Lt. Gen. Richard Ewell, "Take the hill if practicable, but do not bring on a general engagement..." Books on the campaign included "The Gettysburg Campaign, A Study in Command," by Edwin B. Coddington and "Gettysburg: Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill," by Harry W. Pfanz. The novel "While Gods and Generals" by Jeff Shaara, son of Michael Shaara, describes the years leading up to the battle.
(HFA, '96, p.32)(AP, 7/1/97)(SFEC, 6/21/98, p.D5)(HN, 7/1/98)
1863 Jul 1, John Fulton Reynolds (42), Union general, died in battle at Gettysburg.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1863 Jul 1, The Dutch abolished slavery in Suriname. The Dutch were among the last Europeans to abolish slavery.
(AP, 7/2/03)
1863 Jul 2, Mrs. Lincoln was thrown from her carriage and spent weeks recovering at the Anderson Cottage, Washington DC. The seat assembly may have been sabotaged.
(SFC, 5/20/02, p.F10)
1863 Jul 2, The Union left flank held at Little Round Top during 2nd day of the Battle of Gettysburg. Union Gen. Daniel Sickles was severely wounded and had his leg amputated. In 2002 Thomas Keneally authored "American Scoundrel: The Life of the Notorious Civil War General Dan Sickles."
(WSJ, 3/29/02, p.W10)(SFC, 4/17/02, p.D1)(AH, 2/05, p.49)
1863 Jul 3, The last rebel assault was repulsed at the Battle of Gettysburg at 4 p.m. The Civil War’s Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania ended after three days in a major victory for the North as Confederate troops retreated. The last Confederate assault at Gettysburg was Pickett’s Charge against the center of the Union line that left some 7,000 of 13,000 [15,000] Confederate troops dead. Lt. Gen. James Longstreet gave Maj. Gen. George Pickett the assent. General Lee took responsibility. The Union and Confederate armies suffered an estimated 50-51 thousand casualties in the battle. It was the bloodiest battle the country had yet seen. Upon whom the responsibility for the South's failure at Gettysburg rests has been widely debated, but five months after the epic battle, Confederate General Robert E. Lee admitted, "I thought my men were invincible." The fighting in the small Pennsylvania town marked a pivotal point in the Union's ascent to victory and helped decide the outcome of the Civil War. In 1974 Michael Shaara published "The Killer Angels," a novel about the 3-day battle.
(SFC, 7/7/96, T6)(SFC,2/17/97, p.A3)(AP, 7/3/97)(SFEC, 6/21/98, p.D5)(HN, 7/3/98)(WSJ, 9/11/98, p.W10)(HNPD, 7/6/99)
1863 Jul 3, Battle of Donaldsonville, LA.
(MC, 7/3/02)
1863 Jul 4, Boise, Idaho, was founded.
(Maggio, 98)
1863 Jul 4, General U.S. Grant's Union army captured the Confederate town of Vicksburg after a long siege during the Civil War.
(HN, 7/4/98)(IB, Internet, 12/7/98)
1863 Jul 4, General Lee’s army limped toward Virginia after defeat at Gettysburg. 28,063 of 75,000 confederate soldiers were lost. General Meade’s army suffered 23,049 soldiers killed, wounded and missing.
(SFC, 7/7/96, T6)
1863 Jul 4, Paul Joseph Revere, US grandson of Paul Revere, Union brig-gen, died from wounds at Gettysburg.
(MC, 7/4/02)
1863 Jul 4, Failed Confederate assault on Helena, Arkansas, left 640 casualties.
(Maggio, 98)
1863 Jul 4, Skirmish at Smithburg, TN.
(Maggio, 98)
1863 Jul 5, Federal troops occupied Vicksburg, Mississippi, and distributed supplies to the citizens. The battles of Jackson and Birdsong Ferry, were fought in Mississippi.
(HN, 7/5/98)(MC, 7/5/02)
1863 Jul 6, Vincent Strong (b.1837), US Union brig-general, died from wounds at Gettysburg.
(MC, 6/17/02)(MC, 7/6/02)
1863 Jul 7, Confederate General Robert E. Lee, in Hagerstown, Maryland, reported his defeat at Gettysburg to President Jefferson Davis.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1863 Jul 7, The 1st military draft was called by the US. It allowed exemptions for $100.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1863 Jul 7, Orders barring Jews from serving under US Grant were revoked.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1863 Jul 8, Discouraged by the surrender of Vicksburg, Mississippi, Confederates in Port Hudson, Louisiana, surrendered to Union forces.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1863 Jul 10, Clement Clarke Moore (83), (alleged author of "'Twas the Night Before Xmas"), died in NYC.
(MC, 7/10/02)
1863 Jul 10-Jul 16, In the Battle of Jackson, MS, federals captured Jackson with 1000 casualties vs. 1339 for the Confederates.
(MC, 7/10/02)
1863 Jul 11, The Battle of Fort Wager began as Union forces assaulted the Confederate battery on Morris Island at the southern approach to Charleston Harbor.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assault_on_the_Battery_Wagner)
1863 Jul 13, Rioting against the Civil War military draft erupted in New York City; about 1,000 people died over three days. Antiabolitionist Irish longshoremen rampaged against blacks in the deadly Draft Riots in New York City in response to Pres. Lincoln’s announcement of military conscription. Mobs lynched a black man and torched the Colored Orphan Asylum. The 2003 film "Gangs of New York" focused on this event. In 2006 Barnet Schecter authored “The Devil’s Own Work," an account of the riots.
(WSJ, 3/19/96, p.A-12)(AP, 7/13/97)(HN, 7/13/98)(WSJ, 8/2100, p.A14)(WSJ, 1/18/06, p.D13)
1863 Jul 13-15, Battle of Tupelo, MS (Harrisburg).
(MC, 7/13/02)
1863 Jul 14, Jews of Holstein Germany were granted equality.
(MC, 7/14/02)
1863 Jul 15, Confederate raider Bill Anderson and his Bushwackers attacked Huntsville, Missouri, stealing $45,000 from the local bank.
(HN, 7/15/99)
1863 Jul 18, A 2nd assault in the Battle of Fort Wagner, SC, left US1500 and CS174 casualties. Union troops of the Massachusetts 54th Infantry assaulted Battery Wagner on Morris Island in the harbor at Charleston, SC. The ultimately unsuccessful attack, the 1st major engagement by a unit of freed black soldiers, was later celebrated in the 1989 film “Glory."
(www.awod.com/cwchas/wagner.html)(LP, Spring 2006, p.58)
1863 Jul 18, William Dorsey Pender (29), US Confederate gen-maj, died of injuries.
(MC, 7/18/02)
1863 Jul 23, Bill Anderson and his Confederate Bushwackers gutted the railway station at Renick, Missouri.
(HN, 7/23/99)
1863 Jul 24, Battle at Battle Mountain, Virginia.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1863 Jul 26, In the Battle of Salineville, Ohio, John Hunt Morgan and 364 troops surrendered. Confederate Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan and his cavalrymen were captured during their daring raid into Ohio. Conditions for Confederate soldiers housed in the Ohio State Penitentiary in Columbus improved after General Morgan sent a written complaint to the Buckeye State’s governor, David Todd. The Confederates were placed in the dark, dank stone prison, where they were subject to harsh punishment and forced to live on bread and water. Todd visited the prison after receiving Morgan’s letter, and soon afterward reforms were instituted to improve living conditions. Morgan did not stay to savor the improvements, though. In November 1863, he and six other Confederate officers escaped.
(HNQ, 9/20/01)(MC, 7/26/02)
1863 Jul 26, Samuel Houston (70), 1st Pres. of Republic of Texas (1836-38, 41-44), died.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1863 Jul 27, William Lowndes Yancey (b.1814), former Alabama state senator, and advocate of states’ rights and slavery, died at his home near in Montgomery, Alabama. In 2006 Eric H. Walther authored “William Lowndes Yancey and the Coming of the Civil War."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Lowndes_Yancey)
1863 Jul 28, Confederate John Mosby began a series of attacks against General Meade's Army of the Potomac as it tried to pursue General Robert E. Lee in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. Confederate Colonel John S. Mosby was known as "The Gray Ghost." The rather ordinary looking Mosby led his Partisan Rangers in guerilla warfare operations that continually confounded Union commanders in the Piedmont region of Virginia. Learn more about Mosby‘s Confederacy in Faquier and Loudoun counties.
(HN, 7/28/98)(HNQ, 7/15/00)
1863 Jul 30, Henry Ford (d.1947), founder of the Ford Motor Company and developer of the Model T, was born in Dearborn Township, Mich. He led American war production with the gigantic facility at Willow Run. "You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do."
(AP, 8/16/97)(AP, 7/30/98)(HN, 7/30/98)
1863 Jul 30, Pres. Lincoln issued his "eye-for-eye" order to shoot a rebel prisoner for every black prisoner shot.
(MC, 7/30/02)
1863 Jul 30, George Crockett Strong (29), US Union Gen-Maj, died of injuries.
(MC, 7/30/02)
1863 Jul, The Point Lookout prison camp was begun under Gen'l. Gilman Marston with 200 confederate soldiers in St. Mary’s County, 86 miles from Washington DC. More than 4,000 Confederate soldiers perished in 18 months due to privation and disease.
(WSJ, 3/26/96, p.A-19)
1863 Jul, The European public first learned of Angkor in Cambodia from the posthumously published journal of French naturalist Henri Mouhot.
(SFEC, 7/26/98, p.T6)
1863 Aug 1, Battle of Little Rock, AK, and start of the Chattanooga campaign.
(MC, 8/1/02)
1863 Aug 1, Cavalry action near Brandy Station marked the end of Gettysburg Campaign.
(MC, 8/1/02)
1863 Aug 3, Governor Seymour asked Pres. Lincoln to suspend the draft in NY.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1863 Aug 3, The Saratoga Race Course opened in Saratoga Springs, NY.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saratoga_Race_Course)
1863 Aug 6, The CSS Alabama captured the Federal ship Sea Bride near the Cape of Good Hope.
(HN, 8/6/98)
1863 Aug 8, Confederate President Jefferson Davis refused General Robert E. Lee’s resignation.
(HN, 8/8/98)
1863 Aug 12, 1st cargo of lumber left Burrard Inlet in the Vancouver, BC area.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1863 Aug 14, Ernest L. Thayer, author of the poem "Casey at the Bat," was born.
(HN, 8/14/98)
1863 Aug 16, Chickamauga campaign took place in GA. Union General William S. Rosecrans moved his army south from Tullahoma, Tennessee to attack Confederate forces in Chattanooga.
(HN, 8/16/99)(MC, 8/16/02)
1863 Aug 17, Federal batteries and ships bombarded South Carolina’s Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor during the Civil War, but the Confederates managed to hold on despite several days of pounding.
(HN, 8/17/98)(AP, 8/17/08)
1863 Aug 21, William Clarke Quantrill (d.1865), a pro-Confederate guerrilla fighter during the American Civil War, attacked Lawrence, Kansas, with a force estimated at anywhere from 200 to 450 raiders. Though Senator Lane, a prime target of the raid, managed to escape through a cornfield in his nightshirt, the bushwhackers killed an estimated 150-200 men and boys, dragging many from their homes to kill them before their families. When Quantrill rode out at 9 a.m., most of Lawrence's buildings had been burned, including all but two businesses; his raiders looted indiscriminately and also robbed the town's bank. The raid would become notorious in the North as one of the most vicious atrocities of the Civil War.
(HN, 8/21/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Quantrill)
1863 Aug 23, Union batteries ceased their first bombardment of Fort Sumter, leaving it a mass of rubble but still unconquered by the Northern besiegers.
(HN, 8/23/00)
1863 Aug 26, Battle of Rocky Gap, WV, (White Sulphur Springs).
(MC, 8/26/02)
1863 Sep 1, RR and ferry connections between SF and Oakland were inaugurated. Southern Pacific had begun running steam trains in the East Bay this year.
(SC, 9/1/02)(SFC, 3/22/14, p.D2)
1863 Sep 1, 6th Ohio Cavalry ambush at Barbees Crossroads, Virginia.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1863 Sep 6, After 59 day siege, confederates evacuated Ft Wagner, SC.
(MC, 9/6/01)
1863 Sep 8, Federal troops reconquered the Cumberland Gap, Tennessee.
(MC, 9/8/01)
1863 Sep 8, Battle of Telford's Depot, Ten.
(MC, 9/8/01)
1863 Sep 8, Confederate Lieutenant Dick Dowling thwarted a Union naval landing at Sabine Pass, northeast of Galveston, Texas.
(HN, 9/8/98)
1863 Sep 9, The Union Army of the Cumberland passed through Chattanooga as they chased after the retreating Confederates following the Battle of Cumberland Gap.
(HN, 9/9/98)(MC, 9/9/01)
1863 Sep 13, The Loudoun County Rangers routed a company of Confederate cavalry at Catoctin Mountain in Virginia.
(HN, 9/13/99)
1863 Sep 13, Franz von Hipper, German naval commander at the Battle of Jutland in World War I, was born.
(HN, 9/13/98)
1863 Sep 17, The Robinson family under widow Eliza Sinclair arrived in Honolulu. They had moved to British Columbia from New Zealand in June, but were advised to relocate to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii).
(www.clansinclairusa.org/articles/march2001/elizabeth.php)
1863 Sep 18, Union cavalry troops clashed with a group of Confederates at Chickamauga Creek.
(HN, 9/18/99)
1863 Sep 19, In Georgia, the two-day Battle of Chickamauga began as Union troops under George Thomas clashed with Confederates under Nathan Bedford Forrest.
(HN, 9/19/98)
1863 Sep 20, Union troops under George Thomas prevented the Union defeat at Chickamauga from becoming a rout, earning him the nickname "the Rock of Chickamauga." Thomas stayed and fought even after his commander, William Rosecrans, retreated to Chattanooga. President Abraham Lincoln later appointed Thomas as Rosecrans‘ successor. Armed with their new, lethal seven-shot Spencer rifles, Wilder’s Lightning Brigade was all that stood between the Union Army and the looming disaster at Chickamauga Creek. The bloody battle of Chickamauga was the costliest two-day battle of the entire war.
(HN, 9/20/98)(HN, 11/4/98)(HNQ, 9/29/00)
1863 Sep 20, Jakob Grimm, writer, died at 78.
(MC, 9/20/01)
1863 Sep 21, Union troops under Major Gen’l. William S. Rosecrans defeated at Chickamauga sought refuge in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which was then besieged by Confederate troops. There they lost 10,000 horses and mules to starvation.
(HT, 4/97, p.52)(HN, 9/21/98)
1863 Sep 23, Mary Church Terrell, educator, political activist, and first president of the National Association of Colored Women, was born in Memphis, Tennessee. An 1884 graduate of Oberlin College, America's first college to admit women and amongst the first to admit students of all races, Terrell was one of the first American women of African descent to graduate from college. She earned her master's degree from Oberlin in 1888.
(http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/today.html)
1863 Sep 23, The Confederate siege of Chattanooga began.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1863 Sep 26, James M. Wells, a Union cavalry lieutenant from Michigan, was captured by Confederate cavalry and sent to Libby Prison in Richmond, Va.
(ON, 3/01, p.7)
1863 Sep 27, Jo Shelby's cavalry in action at Moffat's Station, Arkansas.
(MC, 9/27/01)
1863 Sep 30, Reinhard von Scheer, German admiral who commanded the German fleet at the Battle of Jutland, was born.
(HN, 9/30/98)
1863 Sep 30, The George Bizet (1838-1875) opera "Les Pecheurs de Perles" (Pearl Fishers) premiered in Paris.
(www.operaphilly.com/03-04/bizet-bio.shtml)
1863 Oct 1, 5 Russian warships were welcomed in NYC.
(MC, 10/1/01)
1863 Oct 3, President Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November, Thanksgiving Day. Credit for establishing Thanksgiving as a national holiday is usually given to Sarah J. Hale, editor and founder of the Ladies' Magazine in Boston. Her editorials in the magazine and letters to President Lincoln urging the formal establishment of a national holiday of Thanksgiving resulted in Lincoln's proclamation, which designated the last Thursday of November as Thanksgiving Day. Later presidents followed this example, with the exception of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who in 1939 proclaimed Thanksgiving Day a week earlier--on the fourth, not the last, Thursday of November--in effort to encourage more holiday shopping. In 1941 Congress adopted a joint resolution, permanently setting the date of Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November.
(AP, 10/3/97)(HN, 11/26/98)(HNPD, 11/26/98)(HN, 11/25/99)
1863 Oct 5, Confederate sub David damaged the Union ship Ironsides.
(MC, 10/5/01)
1863 Oct 9, Confederate cavalry raiders returned to Chattanooga having attacked Union General William Rosecrans’ supply and communication lines all around east Tennessee.
(HN, 10/9/98)
1863 Oct 9, Battle of Brady Station, Va. (Culpeper Court House, Bristoe Station).
(MC, 10/9/01)
1863 Oct 10, The first telegraph line to Denver was completed.
(HN, 10/10/98)
1863 Oct 10, The Skirmish at Blue Springs, Tennessee, resulted in 166 casualties.
(MC, 10/10/01)
1863 Oct 11, Skirmish at Rheatown, Henderson's Mill, Tennessee.
(MC, 10/11/01)
1863 Oct 15, For the second time, the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley sank during a practice dive in Charleston Harbor, S.C, this time drowning its inventor along with seven crew members. The 40-foot Hunley sank in August with five sailors who had volunteered to test it.
(Historynet, 10/15/98)(SFC, 3/12/99, p.A3)
1863 Oct 16, Grant was given command of Union forces in West. [see Oct 17]
(MC, 10/16/01)
1863 Oct 17, General Ulysses S. Grant was named overall Union Commander of the West. [see Oct 16]
(HN, 10/17/98)
1863 Oct 18, Battle of Charlestown in WV.
(MC, 10/18/01)
1863 Oct 19, Gen’l. Grant ordered Major Gen’l. George Thomas to replace Major Gen’l. Rosecrans and Major Gen’l. Joseph Hooker arrived at Chattanooga with 20,000 fresh Federals from Virginia.
(HT, 4/97, p.56)
1863 Oct 23, Gen’l. Grant arrived at Chattanooga. [see Oct 24]
(HT, 4/97, p.56)
1863 Oct 24, General Ulysses S. Grant arrived in Chattanooga, Tennessee to find the Union Army there starving. [see Oct 23]
(HN, 10/24/98)
1863 Oct 28-29, In a rare night attack, Confederates under Gen. James Longstreet attacked a Federal force near Chattanooga in the Battle of Wauhatchie, Tennessee. Longstreet hoped to cut the Federal supply line, the “cracker line," but failed. The principal commanders were: Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker [US] and Brig. Gen. Micah Jenkins [CS]. Estimated causalities: 828 total (US 420; CS 408).
(HN, 10/28/98)(http://www2.cr.nps.gov/abpp/battles/tn021.htm)
1863 Oct, 7,000 soldiers were cramped into Point Lookout Union prison for Confederate soldiers.
(WSJ, 3/26/96, p.A-19)
1863 Nov 4, From the main Confederate Army at Chattanooga, Tenn., Lt. Gen. James Longstreet's troops were sent northeast to besiege Knoxville.
(HN, 11/4/98)
1863 Nov 6, A Union force surrounded and scattered defending Confederates at the Battle of Droop Mountain, in West Virginia.
(HN, 11/6/99)
1863 Nov 6, The Battle of Rogersville took place at Big Creek in Hawkins County, Tennessee. Union troops, under the command of Col. Israel Garrard, faced Confederates under the overall command of Brig. Gen. William E. Jones. Confederates won and sent prisoners sent to Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia.
(http://johnsettles.com/roger.htm)
1863 Nov 7, The Battle of Rappahannock Station, Va., was fought.
(http://www2.cr.nps.gov/abpp/battles/va043.htm)
1863 Nov 12, Confederate General James Longstreet arrived at Loudon, Tennessee to assist the attack on Union General Ambrose Burnside’s troops at Knoxville.
(HN, 11/12/98)
1863 Nov 14, Leo H.A. Baekeland (d.1944), Belgian-born US chemist (bakelite), was born in Ghent.
(www.zephyrus.co.uk/galen.html)
1863 Nov 14, Gen Nathan Bedford Forrest was assigned to command of West Tennessee.
(MC, 11/14/01)
1863 Nov 14, There was a skirmish at Danville, Mississippi.
(MC, 11/14/01)
1863 cNov 15, Major Gen’l. William Tecumseh Sherman arrived at Chattanooga from Mississippi with 16,000 reinforcements.
(HT, 4/97, p.56)
1863 Nov 16, At the Battle of Campbell's Station, Ten., there were 492 causalities.
(MC, 11/16/01)
1863 Nov 17, Lincoln began the 1st draft of his Gettysburg Address.
(MC, 11/17/01)
1863 Nov 17-Dec 4th, Battle of Knoxville, Ten.
(MC, 11/17/01)
1863 Nov 19, President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address as he dedicated a national cemetery at the site of the Civil War battlefield in Pennsylvania. Lincoln had been asked to deliver a few "appropriate remarks" to the crowd at the dedication of the National Cemetery at the site of the Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. His address was almost ignored in the wake of the lengthy oration by main speaker Edwin Everett, the former governor of Massachusetts. In fact, Lincoln's speech was over before many in the crowd were even aware that he was speaking. Lincoln concluded his speech with this vow: "We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
(http://condor.stcloudstate.edu/~brixr01/theTIMEMACHINE.html)(AP, 11/19/97)(ON, 8/07, p.1)
1863 Nov 23, At Chattanooga Gen’l. Thomas’ men drove the Confederates from Orchard Knob. Union forces won the Battle of Orchard Knob, Tenn. The Battle of Chattanooga, one of the most decisive battles of the American Civil War, also began in Tennessee.
(HN, 11/23/01)
1863 Nov 23, A patent was granted for a process of making color photographs.
(MC, 11/23/01)
1863 Nov 24, In the Battle Above the Clouds, Union Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker's forces took Lookout Mountain, near Chattanooga, Tenn. The battle for Lookout Mountain was fought in a layer of fog whose lower level began at the Cravens House, used as Rebel headquarters. Gen’l. Hooker later commissioned painter James Walker to render a picture of the battle for $20,000.
(HFA, ‘96, p.42)(HT, 4/97, p.56)(HN, 11/24/98)
1863 Nov 25, The Union ended the siege of Chattanooga, Tenn., with the Battle of Missionary Ridge, Tenn.
(HN, 11/25/98)
1863 Nov 26, The first of our modern annual Thanksgivings was held following the Oct 3 proclamation of Pres. Lincoln to assign the last Thursday in Nov for this purpose.
(HN, 11/26/98)(HNPD, 11/26/98)
1863 Nov 27, Battle of Payne's Farm, Va.
(MC, 11/27/01)
1863 Nov 29, The Battle of Fort Sanders, Knoxville, Tenn., ended in Confederate withdrawal. There were 8-900 causalities.
(HN, 11/29/98)(MC, 11/29/01)
1863 Nov, In Pennsylvania the Harrisburg Patriot and Union newspaper described Pres. Lincoln’s speech at Gettysburg as “silly remarks" that deserved a “veil of oblivion." In 2013 the Patriot-News of Harrisburg retracted the editorial penned by its predecessor.
(SFC, 11/15/13, p.A7)
1863 Dec 1, Oliver Herford, American humorist and poet, was born. He wrote "Cupid's Fair Weather Book" and "The Deb's Dictionary."
(HN, 12/1/99)
1863 Dec 1, Belle Boyd, a Confederate spy, was released from prison in Washington.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1863 Dec 2, Charles Ringling, one of the 7 Ringling brothers of circus fame, was born. Of the 7 Ringling brothers, five were involved in the founding of the famous Ringling Brothers Circus. The 5 Ringling brothers who founded the circus were Albert, Otto, Alfred, Charles and John. Two other Ringling brothers were never associated with the circus, which began as a wagon show in 1884. In 1907 they bought the Barnum & Bailey Circus and after 1918 called their circus the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows. John Ringling’s son, John Ringling North, sold the circus to interests outside of the family in 1967.
(HN, 12/2/00)(HNQ, 1/22/03)
1863 Dec 2, General Braxton Bragg turned over command of the Army of Tennessee to General William Hardee at Dalton, Ga.
(HN, 12/2/98)
1863 Dec 3, Confederate General Longstreet abandoned his siege at Knoxville, Ten., and moved his army east and north toward Greeneville. This withdrawal marked the end of the Fall Campaign in Tennessee.
(HN, 12/3/98)(MC, 12/3/01)
1863 Dec 4, Seven solid days of bombardment ended at Charleston, S.C. The Union fired some 1,307 rounds.
(HN, 12/4/99)
1863 Dec 6, The monitor Weehawken sank in the Charleston Harbor.
(HN, 12/6/98)
1863 Dec 7, Outlaw George Ives, an alleged member of an outlaw gang known as the "Innocents," robbed and then killed Nick Thiebalt in the Ruby Valley of what would become Montana.
(HN, 12/7/98)
1863 Dec 8, President Lincoln announced his plan for the Reconstruction of the South. President Lincoln offered amnesty for confederate deserters.
(AP, 12/8/97)(MC, 12/8/01)
1863 Dec 8, Averell’s cavalry destroyed railroads in the southwestern part of West Virginia.
(HN, 12/8/98)
1863 Dec 8, A Jesuit church in Chile caught fire and 2,500 died in a panic.
(MC, 12/8/01)
1863 Dec 9, Major General John G. Foster replaced Major General Ambrose E. Burnside as Commander of the Department of Ohio.
(HN, 12/9/98)
1863 Dec 11, Union gunboats Restless, Bloomer and Caroline entered St. Andrew’s Bay, Fla., and began bombardment of both Confederate Quarters and Saltworks.
(HN, 12/11/98)
1863 Dec 12, Edvard Munch (d.1944), Norwegian artist (The Scream), was born.
(WUD, 1994 p.941)(NH, 6/00, p.20)(HN, 12/12/00)
1863 Dec 12, Orders were given in Richmond that no more supplies from the Union should be received by Federal prisoners.
(HN, 12/12/98)
1863 Dec 14, The widow of Confederate General B.H. Helm was given amnesty by President Lincoln after she swore allegiance to the Union. Mrs. Helm was the half-sister of Mary Todd Lincoln.
(HN, 12/14/98)
1863 Dec 14, Longstreet attacked Union troops at Bean’s Station, Tenn.
(HN, 12/14/98)
1863 Dec 16, Confederate General Joseph Johnston took command of the Army of Tennessee, replacing Lt. General William Hardee.
(HN, 12/16/98)
1863 Albert Bierstadt created his painting "Rocky Mountains, Landers Peak."
(SSFC, 8/4/02, p.M2)
1863 Johan Barthold Jongkind created his painting " Port of Honfleur at Evening."
(WSJ, 12/3/03, p.D12)
1863 George Richmond, R.A., painted the portrait "Maharani ‘Chund Kowr’ alias Rani Jindan" in India.
(SFEM, 2/1/98, p.14)(SFC, 2/7/98, p.E1)
1863 Auguste Rodin began his sculpture masterpiece "Mask of the Man With the Broken Nose."
(WSJ, 4/1/97, p.A16)
1863 The Paris Salon des Refuses was a group show of artists rejected by the mavens of the official salon. The hit and scandal of the show was Edouard Manet’s "Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe" which depicted a happy foursome picnicking in the woods with the two women undressed. One of the women was Victorine Meurent, a professional model. Other refused artists included Cezanne, Pissarro, and other impressionists.
(WSJ, 6/14/95, p.A-14)(Econ, 1/26/13, p.76)
1863 George Frederic Watts painted "Choosing."
(WSJ, 2/19/97, p.A15)
1863 Charles Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll, published "Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland." [see Dodgson in 1832]
(WSJ, 11/9/95, p.A-20)
1863 T.H. Huxley published his exposition of Darwinism in his lectures to working men: "On Our Knowledge of the Causes of the Phenomena of Organic Nature."
(NH, 5/96, p.22)
1863 Jules Verne (1828-1905) authored his novel “Five Weeks in a Balloon." This was his first published book.
(WSJ, 9/18/07, p.D8)
1763 Voltaire authored his "Treatise on Tolerance." In 2015 it began climbing the French best seller list in the wake of attacks by French-born Islamic extremists.
(AP, 1/28/15)
1863 The first San Francisco Cliff House was built by real estate tycoon Charles Butler as a dining establishment for well-to-do families. The 160-acre site had been used as a potato farm by a man named chambers. It was purchased in 1881 by Adolph Sutro. The Cliff House burned down in 1894 and was rebuilt. It again burned down in 1907 and rebuilt in 1909.
(SFC, 1/7/97, p.B1)(SFC, 4/14/99, Z1 p.4)(SFC, 4/5/14, p.C1)
1863 The Sears-Ferris House was built in Carson City, Nev. It was the boyhood home of Gale Ferris (1859-1896), the inventor of the Ferris Wheel.
(SSFC, 11/19/06, p.F10)
1863 Ellen White of Maine, founder of the 7th Day Adventists, testified against tobacco, spirituous liquors, snuff, tea, coffee, flesh-meats, butter, spices, rich cakes, mince pies, large amounts of salt and all exciting substances used as articles of food.
(SFC, 9/29/00, p.W17)
1863 In Indianapolis the Crown Hill cemetery was established.
(SFEC,10/26/97, p.T6)
1863 Walker Rankin Sr. founded the 31,000 acre Quarter Circle U Rankin Ranch in the Tehachapi Mountains of Kern County, Ca.
(SFEC, 7/5/98, p.T6)
1863 The Mütter Museum was founded as part of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia was an educational service for practicing physicians.
(NW, 11/18/02, p.14)
1863 Fitz Hugh Ludlow, author of the 1857 book "The Hasheesh Eater," arrived in SF by the Overland Stagecoach. He rode with painter Albert Bierstadt who married Ludlow's wife in 1864. Ludlow wrote an account of his travels titled "The heart of the Continent." In 1999 Donald P. Dulchinos published "Pioneer of Inner Space: The Life of Fitz Hugh Ludlow, Hasheesh Eater."
(SFEC, 1/24/99, BR p.4)
1863 Abraham Lincoln sent 450 newly freed slaves to Haiti’s Ile-à-Vache to found a colony, though most gave up and returned home a year later.
(Reuters, 4/6/14)
1863 Treasury Sec. Hugh McCulloch lamented that America’s monetary system "is unfitted for a commercial country like ours."
(WSJ, 1/13/98, p.A1)
1863 The Treaty of Ruby Valley with the Western Shoshone Indians assured their ownership of property that later became a US nuclear test site. The treaty stated that the presence of US settlements will not negate Indian sovereignty.
(SFC, 7/12/97, p.E4)(SFEC, 8/29/99, Z1 p.7)
1863 The US government paid a group of Nez Perce Indians $265,000 for some 6 million acres in the area of Lewiston, Oregon.
(ON, 3/04, p.1)
1863 James Garfield was elected to Congress.
(HNQ, 8/3/02)
1863 Civil war ships, the Dot, the Charm and the Paul Jones, were scuttled on a tributary to the Big Muddy during the Confederate retreat from Vicksburg.
(NOHY, Weiner, 3/90, p.88)
1863 At the Battle of Chickamauga Creek, James B. Steedman seized his regiment’s colors and dramatically led his wavering volunteers through a withering barrage of Confederate fire. The Confederates won the battle, but Steedman emerged unscathed to become Toledo’s most famous Civil War hero.
(Smith., 4/1995, p.140)
1863 Pauline C. Fryer (1833-1893) toured the South getting information for the Union, when she was found out and ordered hung by Confederate General Braxton Bragg. The Union troops took the town before the sentence could be carried out. She then toured the North and wrote a book "Spy for the Cumberland" (1864). President Lincoln gave her the Honorary rank of Major.
(www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6333443)
1863 Bloody Bill Anderson, notorious Confederate guerilla leader, executed all the troopers in a raid but one, Sergeant T.M. Goodman, who was left alive to deliver news of the raid to Union officers.
(SFC, 9/23/96, A15)
1863 Dorence Atwater was captured by the Confederates and his penmanship won him the job of recording the name, company, regiment, disease, date of death, and grave number of each prisoner who had died at Andersonville. Atwater made a secret copy of the list and after the war wanted to publish it so that the families of the dead would know where their loved ones were buried. When the Civil War ended, former Union soldier Dorence Atwater sought Clara Barton’s help to publish a list of soldiers who had died while interned at the Confederate Andersonville prison camp in Georgia. He approached Clara Barton, who had already opened an office to locate missing Union soldiers. When they tried to publish the death register, however, it resulted in Atwater’s court marital and imprisonment.
(HNQ, 2/27/01)
1863 A woman was executed in Texas. The next woman to face execution would be Karla Faye Tucker in 1998.
(SFC, 2/5/97, p.A7)(WSJ, 2/3/98, p.A1)
1863 In northern California the 331-foot Knight’s Ferry Bridge was erected over the Stanislaus River.
(KCSM TV, Calif. Gold, 10/10/11)
1863 In California the state’s "black laws" were repealed.
(SFC, 7/18/98, p.A15)
1863 The California Teachers Association was formed.
(SSFC, 1/23/05, p.C1)
1863 San Francisco’s St. Brigid Church was founded. It was later rebuilt 6 times and transformed from a wooden structure to a granite building with stained glass imported from Dublin, Ireland. Construction had begun in 1860. The SF Archdiocese closed the church in 1994.
(SFC, 6/30/99, p.A14)(SSFC, 8/14/11, p.F3)
1863 As San Francisco voters considered a bond measure to help finance the Central Pacific Railroad, Philip Stanford, brother of the governor, drove through the city on election day "handing out money liberally’ to all who would vote for the bond.
(SFC, 7/8/96, p.D2)
1863 St. Mary’s College was built on College Hill near Richland Ave and Mission St. It left San Francisco for Oakland in 1889 and later moved to Moraga.
(SFC, 5/22/13, p.E6)
1863 The rails of the SF & San Jose Railroad were completed to San Mateo. The Santa Clara depot opened as the first station on the line.
(Ind, 10/31/98, p.5A)(SFC, 1/15/14, p.E1)
1863 A locomotive named the Gov. Stanford was built by Richard Norris & Son in Philadelphia and shipped around Cape Horn to California by schooner. It hauled the Central Pacific’s 1st freight and passenger trains and later was made a centerpiece at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento.
(SSFC, 8/8/04, p.D5)(SSFC, 2/9/14, p.P2)
1863 John A. Frye (d.1911), a shoemaker from England, founded the Frye Boot company in the US.
(www.bootbarn.com/blog/archives/2005/07/frye_boots_step.html).
(WSJ, 6/21/07, p.D1)
1863 Linus Yale Jr. introduced the Double Dial bank lock. It revolutionized the vault business by presenting 100 million possible combinations.
(WSJ, 12/2/06, p.P9)
1863 John D. Rockefeller and partner Maurice Clark invested $4,000 to start an oil refinery.
(WSJ, 5/8/98, p.W10)
1863 Sir Francis Galton theorized that the quality of human offspring would improve if talented people married only other talented people. His ideas led to the eugenics movement.
(SSFC, 11/9/03, p.D1)
1863 William Banting, An English undertaker, printed his pamphlet “Letter on Corpulence," in which he recommended a high protein diet that helped him loose weight. The diet was based on one recently recommended for diabetics.
(WSJ, 5/5/04, p.B1)
1863 Last Chance Gulch and Alder Gulch were sites of major gold discoveries in the American West. Each became a city and each served as capital of the territory that eventually became the state of Montana. After the gold strikes, Alder Gulch became Virginia City and Last Chance Gulch became Helena.
(HNQ, 2/9/00)
1863 The star U Scorpii flared up as a recurrent novae. It recurred in 1906 and 1936.
(SCTS, p.182)
1863 William Makepeace Thackeray (b.1811), English novelist and satirist, died. His books, which included "Vanity Fair," were published as monthly serials. In 2001 D.J. Taylor authored the biography "Thackeray: The Life of a Literary Man." Thackeray was a chronicler of upward mobility.
(HN, 7/18/98)(WSJ, 11/12/01, p.A20)
1863 The sailing ship Star of India was built as Euterpe, a full-rigged iron ship in Ramsey, Isle of Man. In 1926, Star of India was sold to the Zoological Society of San Diego, to be the centerpiece of a planned museum and aquarium. The Great Depression and World War II caused that plan to be canceled; it wasn't until 1957 that her restoration began.
(SFC, 11/13/06, p.B1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_of_India_(ship))
1863 The British military invaded Maori land in New Zealand in violation of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi.
(Fin. Post, 11/2/95, p.2)
1863 The Cayman Islands became a British Caribbean territory.
(AP, 5/10/03)
1863 French forces captured Puebla, Mexico.
(SFEC,11/9/97, p.T6)
1863 Ludwig II (1845-1886) became king of Bavaria after his father died.
(SFEC, 4/9/00, p.T5)
1863 In Iran the Bahai faith was founded by Hussain Ali (b. Nov 12, 1817 in Iran). It reflected the attitudes of the Shiah sect with an emphasis on tolerance. Among its principles are full equality between the sexes, universal education and the establishment of a world of a world federal system. The Baha'i Faith was founded in Iran by a man named Baha'u'llah, which literally means "The Glory of God".
(WUD, 1994, p.111)(SFC, 10/30/98, p.A20)
1863 In Italy the Grand Hotel des Iles Borromees opened in Stresa on Lake Maggiore.
(AMNHDT, 5/98)
1863 Radama II, ruler of Madagascar, was assassinated. He was succeeded by his wife Rasoherina, who was later succeeded by another of Radama's wives, Ranavalona II.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radama_II_of_Madagascar)
1863 Prince Charles III built the casino of Monte Carlo. The Monte Carlo Casino was built and officially named the Sea Bathing & Circle of Foreigners Co.
(SFC, 1/8/97, p.C1)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)
1863 The Matica Slovenska was founded as a cultural organization and nurtured the dream of Slovak independence.
(WSJ, 4/26/96, p.A-11)
1863-1865 The 1998 novel "The Last Full Measure" by Jeff Shaara covers the last years of the Civil War.
(SFEC, 6/21/98, p.D5)
1863-1865 In the Dominican Republic the conflict of this period was known as the War of the Restoration. From 1844--after independence from Haitian—until 1899, the fledgling republic was dominated by a series of dictatorial "men on horseback." One of these strong men, Pedro Santana, endeavored to stave off the threat of Haiti by returning the country to Spanish control, with him as the Governor General beginning in 1861. The Spanish troops eventually left, but the idea of the protectorate remained, eventually leading to U.S. occupation in 1916.
(HNQ, 8/10/00)
1863-1867 Felix Nadar joined a group of men that included Jules Verne to promote the development of flying machines, which they envisioned as helicopters. They funded the building of the Geant, the largest balloon yet flown that measured 147 feet in circumference. It held 12 people in a two-story basket and flew over a number of cities before crashing in Hanover injuring both Nadar and his wife. This made him quite famous and he wrote two books about his experiences.
(Smith., 5/95, p.79-80)
1863-1869 The Big Four Sacramento merchants, Charles Crocker, Mark Hopkins, Collis P. Huntington, and Leland Stanford put up the initial money for the Central Pacific Railroad. Congress thought that silver from the Comstock mines would help finance the Civil War and contracted the Central Pacific and Union Pacific to build a trans-continental railroad.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.17)
1863-1869 In 2000 Stephen E. Ambrose authored "Nothing Like It in the World, The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869."
(SSFC, 12/17/00, BR p.10)
1863-1933 Constantine Cavafy, Greek poet. He describes the coming of the barbarians and the fall of the Roman empire as: "At least they were some kind of solution."
(V.D.-H.K.p.296)
1863-1936 James Harvey Robinson, American historian: "We are incredibly heedless in the formation of our beliefs, but find ourselves filled with an illicit passion for them when anyone proposes to rob us of their companionship."
(AP, 11/23/97)
1863-1941 William Gibbs McAdoo, American government official: "It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument."
(AP, 6/11/97)
1863-1952 George Santayana, Spanish-American philosopher: "What man strives to preserve, in preserving himself, is something which he has never been at any particular moment." "Miracles are propitious accidents, the natural causes of which are too complicated to be readily understood."
(AP, 12/7/97)(HN, 7/18/98)
Return to home
1862 Jan 1, The US federal government Tax Act of July 14, 1862, took effect as of January 1, 1862.
(AP, 8/5/97)(http://tinyurl.com/brzpcg3)
1862 Jan 4, In the Romney Campaign Stonewall Jackson occupied Bath.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1862 Jan 7, Battle of Manassas Junction, VA.
(MC, 1/7/02)
1862 Jan 8, Frank Nelson Doubleday, founder of Doubleday publishing house, was born.
(HN, 1/8/99)
1862 Jan 10, Battle of Big Sandy River, KY (Middle Creek).
(MC, 1/10/02)
1862 Jan 10, Battle of Romney, WV.
(MC, 1/10/02)
1862 Jan 10, Samuel Colt (47), inventor (6 shot revolver), died.
(MC, 1/10/02)
1862 Jan 11, Lincoln accepted Simon Cameron's resignation as Secretary of War.
(HN, 1/11/99)
1862 Jan 13, President Lincoln named Edwin M. Stanton Secretary of War.
(HN, 1/13/99)
1862 Jan 18, Confederate Territory of Arizona formed.
(MC, 1/18/02)
1862 Jan 18, John Tyler (71), 10th president of the United States (1841-1845), died and was buried at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Va. He drank a mint julep every morning for breakfast. Tyler had joined the Confederacy after his presidency and was designated a "sworn enemy of the United States."
(AP, 1/18/98)(SFEC, 11/15/98, Z1 p.10)(SFEC, 12/20/98, Z1 p.8)(HN, 1/18/99)
1862 Jan 22, Confederate government raised the premium for volunteers from $10 to $20.
(MC, 1/22/02)
1862 Jan 24, Edith Wharton (d.1937), U.S. novelist was born. Her novels included Age of Innocence," House of Mirth," "Summer," and "Ethan Frome." She also wrote books on home design. "There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle, or the mirror that reflects it." "The essence of taste is suitability. Divest the word of its prim and priggish implications, and see how it expresses the mysterious demand of the eye and mind for symmetry, harmony and order." In 1978 Gore Vidal edited the "Edith Wharton Omnibus." Eleanor Dwight wrote her 1994 biography: "An Extraordinary Life."
(AP, 8/17/97)(WSJ, 12/9/97, p.A20)(AP, 1/11/98)(HN, 1/24/99)(SSFC, 1/14/01, BR p.8)
1862 Jan 27, President Abraham Lincoln issued General War Order No. 1, setting in motion the Union armies.
(HN, 1/27/99)
1862 Jan 29, William Quantrill and his Confederate raiders attack Danville, Kentucky.
(HN, 1/29/00)
1862 Jan 30, The USS Monitor, a Union ironclad ship designed by John Ericsson, was launched into the East River at Greenpoint, Long Island, under Captain John L. Worden. It was the first warship equipped with a revolving turret. On March 6 it left NY Harbor and headed for Virginia to face the Confederate ironclad.
(HN, 1/30/99)(AH, 12/02, p.8)(ON, 10/08, p.1)
1862 Feb 1, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" was first published in "Atlantic Monthly" as an anonymous poem. The lyric was the work of Julia Ward Howe and was based on chapter 63 of the Old Testament’s Book of Isaiah. "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" soon became the most popular Union marching song of the Civil War and is still being sung and to the tune of a song titled, "John Brown’s Body". Julia Ward Howe (b.1819-1908) was an influential social reformer and wife of fellow reformer and educator Samuel Gridley Howe. She was prominent in the anti-slavery movement, woman‘s suffrage, prison reform and the international peace movements. Julia Ward Howe was the first woman elected to the American Academy of Fine Arts and Letters in 1908. Ralph Waldo Emerson, said: "I honor the author of 'The Battle Hymn' ... she was born in the city of New York. I could well wish she were a native of Massachusetts. We have no such poetess in New England."
(440 Int'l, 2/1/1999)(HNQ, 1/31/00,5/21/02)
1862 Feb 6, Ulysses S. Grant began a military campaign in Mississippi. The Battle of Fort Henry, Tenn., began the Mississippi Valley campaign.
(HN, 2/6/99)(MC, 2/6/02)
1862 Feb 7, Bernard Maybeck (d.1957), architect, was born in NYC. He designed the Palace of Fine Arts in SF and the First Church of Christ Scientist in Berkeley.
(SFEM,12/797, p.46)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Maybeck)
1862 Feb 7, Federal fleet attacked Roanoke Island, NC.
(MC, 2/7/02)
1862 Feb 8, Union troops under Gen. Ambrose Burnside defeated a Confederate defense force at the Battle of Roanoke Island, N.C.
(HN, 2/8/99)
1862 Feb 13, Four-day Battle of Fort Donelson, Tenn., began. General Grant said, "What determined my attack on Donelson was as much the knowledge I had gained of its commanders in Mexico as anything else."
(HN, 2/13/98)
1862 Feb 14, Galena, the 1st US iron-clad warship for service at sea, was launched in Conn.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1862 Feb 15, Grant launched a major assault on Fort Donelson, Tenn.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1862 Feb 16, During the Civil War, some 14,000 Confederate soldiers surrendered at Fort Donelson, Tenn. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s victory earned him the nickname "Unconditional Surrender Grant." Nathan Bedford Forrest escaped.
(AP, 2/16/98)(HN, 2/16/98)
1862 Feb 18, Charles M. Schwab, "Boy Wonder" of the steel industry, was born. He became president of both U.S. Steel and Bethlehem Steel.
(HN, 2/18/99)
1862 Feb 20, Willie Lincoln (b.1850), son of Pres. Lincoln, died in Washington DC. Typhoid fever was the suspected cause.
(SSFC, 3/20/05, Par p.4)(www.nps.gov/liho/lincoln.htm)
1862 Feb 21, The Texas Rangers won a Confederate victory in the Battle of Val Verde, New Mexico.
(HN, 2/21/98)
1862 Feb 21, Confederate Constitution & presidency were declared permanent.
(MC, 2/21/02)
1862 Feb 22, Jefferson Davis was inaugurated president of the Confederacy in Richmond, Va. for the second time.
(HN, 2/22/98)
1862 Feb 22, Mary Smith Peake (1823-1862), American teacher and humanitarian, died of tuberculosis. She is best known for teaching runaway slaves under an oak tree, the Emancipation Oak, near Fort Monroe, Va.
(ON, 2/12, p.2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_S._Peake)
1862 Feb 25, Congress formed the US Bureau of Engraving & Printing. Greenbacks were introduced.
(MC, 2/25/02)
1862 Feb 25, Confederate troops abandoned Nashville, Tenn., in the face of Grant’s advance.
(HN, 2/25/98)
1862 Feb 25, The ironclad Monitor was commissioned at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
(HN, 2/25/98)
1862 Feb 26, Battle of Woodburn, KY.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1862 Feb 26, Cornelius Felton (b.1807), president of Harvard Univ., died in Chester, Pen., after 2 years in office.
(WSJ, 2/21/06, p.A3)(www.nndb.com/people/711/000107390/)
1862 Feb 28, Karl Goldmark's opera "The Queen of Sheba," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1862 Mar 2, Gen’l. Frederick W. Lander (b.1821), transcontinental engineer and Union General, died of “congestion of the brain" at Paw Paw, Virginia. He was the chief engineer of the Central Overland route. In 2000 Gary L. Ecalbarger authored “Frederick W. Lander: The Great Natural American Soldier."
(www.picturehistory.com/find/p/16832/mcms.html)(ACC, 2004)
1862 Mar 3, General Pope laid siege in front of New Madrid, MO.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1862 Mar 6, Battle of Pea Ridge, AR (Elkhorn Tavern). [see Mar 7]
(MC, 3/6/02)
1862 Mar 7, Confederate forces surprised the Union army at the Battle of Pea Ridge, in Arkansas, but the Union was victorious. [see Mar 6]
(HN, 3/7/99)
1862 Mar 7, In the second day of the Battle of Elkhorn Tavern, Generals McCulloch and McIntosh perished.
(HN, 3/7/98)
1862 Mar 8, On the second day of the Battle of Pea Ridge (Elkhorn Tavern) in Arkansas, Confederate forces, including some Indian troops, under General Earl Van Dorn surprised Union troops, but the Union troops won the battle. Pea Ridge Natl. Military Park, Arkansas, marked the site where Confederate commanders, Gen. Ben McCulloch and Gen. James McIntosh, were killed.
(Postcard, Coastal Photo Scenics, SW Harbor, Maine)(HN, 3/8/98)(HN, 3/8/99)
1862 Mar 8, The ironclad CSS Virginia (formerly USS Merrimack) rammed and sank the USS Cumberland and inflicted heavy damage on the USS Congress, both frigates, off Newport News, Va. Popular during the Crimean War, the floating battery was revived by hard-pressed Confederates.
(AP, 3/8/07)(HN, 3/8/98)
1862 Mar 8, Nat Gordon, last pirate, was hanged in NYC for stealing 1,000 slaves.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1862 Mar 9, The ironclads, CSS Virginia, (formerly Merrimac) of the South, battled the USS Monitor, designed by John Ericsson, in their first battle for five hours to a draw at Hampton Roads, Va. The story is told by James Tertius deKay in his 1998 book “Monitor: The Story of the Legendary Civil War Ironclad and the Man Whose Invention Changed the Course of History."
(SFEC, 1/18/98, Par p.16)(AP, 3/9/98)(HN, 3/9/98)
1862 Mar 10, First U.S. paper money was issued in denominations of $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, $500 & $1000.
(HN, 3/10/98)(MC, 3/10/02)
1862 Mar 11, Pres. Lincoln suspended General George McClellan from command of all the Union armies so that McClellan could concentrate on the Army of the Potomac and Richmond.
(www.civilwarhome.com/macbio.htm)
1862 Mar 12, Jane Delano (d.1919), nurse, teacher and founder of the American Red Cross, was born in Montour Falls, New York. She helped the American Red Cross Nursing Service to be recognized as the nursing reserve for the Army and Navy.
(www.wordiq.com/definition/Jane_Delano)
1862 Mar 13, The US Congress passed a bill prohibiting the military from returning slaves to their masters.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_Prohibiting_the_Return_of_Slaves)
1862 Mar 14, Battle of New Bern, NC. General Burnside conquered New Bern, a strategic port and rail hub.
(AM, 11/04, p.28)
1862 Mar 15, General John Hunt Morgan began four days of raids near the city of Gallatin, Tenn. "The Yankees will never take me a prisoner again," vowed Confederate General John Hunt Morgan.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1862 Mar 19, F. Wilhelm von Schadow (73), German painter (Modern Vasari), died.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1862 Mar 23, Battle of Kernstown, Va., began. Winchester, Va., was another embattled town. Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson faced his only defeat at the Battle of Kernstown, Va., as he began his Valley Campaign.
(HN, 3/23/98)(HN, 3/23/99)(SS, 3/23/02)
1862 Mar 24, Abolitionist Wendell Phillips spoke to a crowd about emancipation in Cincinnati, Ohio and was pelted by eggs.
(HN, 3/24/00)
1862 Mar 26, Battle of La Glorieta Pass, New Mexico Territory (Apache Canyon, Pigeon's Ranch).
(SS, 3/26/02)
1862 Mar 28, Aristide Briand, premier of France (1909-22), was born.
(HN, 3/28/98)
1862 Mar 28, US Civil War skirmish at Bealeton Station, Virginia.
(MC, 3/28/02)
1862 Mar 31, Skirmishing between Rebels and Union forces took place at Island 10 on the Mississippi River.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1862 Apr 1, Shenandoah Valley campaign, Jackson's Battle of Woodstock, VA.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1862 Apr 3, A bill was passed to abolish slavery in Washington, D.C. [see Apr 16]
(HN, 4/3/98)
1862 Apr 4, Battle of Yorktown, Virginia, began as Union gen. George B. McClellan closed in on Richmond. This began the Peninsular Campaign aimed at capturing Richmond.
(HN, 4/4/99)(MC, 4/4/02)
1862 Apr 5, Siege of Yorktown, VA., continued.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1862 Apr 6, Two days of bitter fighting began at the Civil War battle of Shiloh (called Pittsburg Landing by the Confederates) as the Confederates attacked Grant's Union forces in southwestern Tennessee. Union commander Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, planning to advance on the important railway junction at Corinth, Miss., met a surprise attack by General Albert Sidney Johnston's Army of Mississippi. The Confederates pushed the Federals back steadily during the first day's fighting, in spite of Johnston's death that afternoon. Only with the arrival of Union reinforcements during the night did the tide turn, forcing the rebels to withdraw. The opposing sides slaughtered each other with such ferocity that one survivor wrote, "No blaze of glory...can ever atone for the unwritten and unutterable horrors of the scene." Gen. Ulysses Grant after the Battle of Shiloh said: "I saw an open field... so covered with dead that it would have been possible to walk across... in any direction, stepping on dead bodies without a foot touching the ground." More than 9,000 Americans died. The battle left some 24,000 casualties and secured the West for the Union. In 1952 Shelby Foote wrote "Shiloh," an historical novel based on documentation from participants in the battle. Recorded Books made a cassette version in 1992.
(SFC, 6/19/96, p.E5)(HT, 4/97, p.13)(AP, 4/6/97)(AM, May/Jun 97 p.27)(RBI, 1992)(HN, 4/6/98)(HNPD, 4/6/99)
1862 Apr 6, Albert Sidney Johnston (59), US and Confederate general, was killed in battle of Shiloh.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1862 Apr 7, Union forces led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant defeated the Confederates at the battle of Shiloh in Tennessee. Gen. Ulysses Grant after the Battle of Shiloh said: "I saw an open field... so covered with dead that it would have been possible to walk across... in any direction, stepping on dead bodies without a foot touching the ground." More than 9,000 Americans died.
(SFC, 6/19/96, p.E5)(HT, 4/97, p.13)(AP, 4/7/97)
1862 Apr 8, John D. Lynde patented an aerosol dispenser.
(MC, 4/8/02)
1862 Apr 10, Union forces began the bombardment of Fort Pulaski in Georgia along the Tybee River.
(HN, 4/10/99)
1862 Apr 11, Charles Evans Hughs, 11th Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1930-41), was born. He resisted President Franklin Roosevelt’s attempts to "pack" the Supreme Court with judges favorable to the New Deal.
(HN, 4/11/99)
1862 Apr 11, Rebels surrendered Ft Pulaski, Georgia.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1862 Apr 12, Union volunteers from Ohio, led by Lt. James J. Andrews, stole a Confederate train near Marietta, Ga. They were caught 89 miles up the track. 8 of the 24 raiders were hanged that summer. 8 others escaped and made their way north. The episode inspired Buster Keaton’s 1927 comedy "The General." In 1956 Disney retold the story in “The Great Locomotive Chase" with Fess Parker. In 2006 Russell S. Bonds authored “Stealing the General."
(AP, 4/12/00)(WSJ, 11/10/06, p.W4)
1862 Apr 12, Union troops occupied Fort Pulaski, Georgia.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1862 Apr 13, In the Washington area volunteers led by Sarah J. Evans paid homage to the graves of Civil War soldiers. Villagers in Waterloo, NY, held their 1st Memorial Day service on May 5, 1866. In 1966 Pres. Johnson gave Waterloo, NY, the distinction of holding the 1st Memorial Day.
(SFC, 5/26/03, p.A2)
1862 Apr 16, Confederate President Jefferson Davis approved conscription act for white males between 18 and 35.
(HN, 4/16/98)
1862 Apr 16, President Lincoln signed a bill, passed on April 3, ending slavery in the District of Columbia.
(HN, 4/16/98)(AP, 4/16/08)
1862 Apr 18, Battle of Ft Jackson, Ft St. Philip and New Orleans, LA.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1862 Apr 19, Simon Fraser, Canadian explorer, died.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1862 Apr 21, Ellen Price Wood's "East Lynne," premiered in Boston.
(MC, 4/21/02)
1862 Apr 21, Congress established the U.S. Mint.
(HN, 4/21/98)
1862 Apr 25, Admiral David Farragut gained control of the Mississippi River at New Orleans, Louisiana. A few days later federal troops occupied the city. This stopped cotton sales by the Confederacy a revenue shortage that led to printed money and hyperinflation. In 2000 Jack D. Coombe published "Gunfire Around the Gulf," which recounts the Southern Civil War naval campaign.
(www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=1105)(WSJ, 1/26/00, p.A20)(WSJ, 11/21/08, p.W6)
1862 Apr 29, Forts Philip and Jackson surrendered to Union forces under Admiral Farragut outside New Orleans. 100,000 federal troops prepared to march into Corinth, Miss.
(AP, 4/29/98)(HN, 4/29/98)(MC, 4/29/02)
1862 May 1, Marcel Prevost, French publisher, writer (Les demis-vierges), was born.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1862 May 4, Battle at Williamsburg, Virginia. [see May 5]
(MC, 5/4/02)
1862 May 4, At Yorktown, VA., McClellan halted his troop before town as it was full of armed land mines left by CS Brig. general Gabrial Rains.
(MC, 5/4/02)
1862 May 5, Battle of Williamsburg commenced as part of the Peninsular Campaign. Confederate Captain Charles Bruce kept his father apprised of conditions during the crucial Peninsula campaign.
(HN, 5/5/98)
1862 May 5, At the Battle of Pueblo, a [2,000] 5,000 man Mexican force (cavalry), loyal to Benito Juarez and under the leadership of Gen’l. Ignacio Zaragoza, defeated 6,000 [10,000] French troops sent by Napoleon III. The French were attempting to capture Puebla de Los Angeles, a small town in east-central Mexico. The Battle of Puebla represented a great moral victory for the Mexican government, symbolizing the country's ability to defend its sovereignty against threat by a powerful foreign nation. The event became memorialized in the Cinco de Mayo annual festival. Napoleon had intended to march through to the US and help the Confederacy in the Civil War.
(SFEM, 4/27/97, p.6)(AP, 5/5/97)(SFEC,11/9/97, p.T6)(SFEC, 11/8/98, p.T8)(SFC, 5/1/99, p.A13)(WSJ, 5/5/00, p.W17)(MC, 5/5/02)
1862 May 6, Henry David Thoreau (44), American writer, died of tuberculosis. In 1999 his unfinished manuscript "Wild Fruits," a catalog of his observations on local plants and fruits, was published.
(WP, 1952, p.42)(SFC, 9/7/99, p.A3)(HN, 5/6/01)
1862 May 7, At the Battle of Eltham's Landing in Virginia, Confederate troops struck Union troops in the Shenandoah Valley.
(HN, 5/7/99)
1862 May 8, General 'Stonewall' Jackson repulsed the Federals at the Battle of McDowell, in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign.
(HN, 5/8/99)
1862 May 9, Battle of Ft. Pickens, FL (Pensacola), evacuated by CSA.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1862 May 9, Battle of Farmington, MS.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1862 May 9, US Naval Academy was relocated from Annapolis MD to Newport, RI.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1862 May 10, Battle of Plum Run Bend, TN (Plum Point Bend).
(MC, 5/10/02)
1862 May 11, The Confederates scuttled the CSS Virginia off Norfolk, Virginia.
(HN, 5/11/98)
1862 May 12, Federal troops occupied Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1862 May 13, Robert Smalls, a slave crewman on the Confederate steamboat Planter, stole the ship from the harbor of Charleston and surrendered it to the USS Onward of the Union blockade. In 1971 Okon Edet Uya published "From slavery to Public Service: Robert Smalls, 1839-1915.
(ON, 5/00, p.2)
1862 May 15, Arthur Schnitzler, playwright, novelist (La Ronde), was born in Austria.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1862 May 15, The US Department of Agriculture was created.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1862 May 15, General Benjamin F. ("Beast") Butler decreed "Woman Order," that all captured women in New Orleans were to be his whores.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1862 May 15, The Union ironclad Monitor and the gunboat Galena fired on Confederate troops at the Battle of Drewry's Bluff, Virginia.
(HN, 5/15/99)
1862 May 15, The Confederate cruiser Alabama ran aground near London.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1862 May 15-17, Battle of Princeton, WV.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1862 May 18, William High Keim (b.1813), US Union Brigadier-General, died in camp of fever in Harrisburg, Pa.
(SC, 5/18/02)(http://home.ptd.net/~nikki/usagen3.htm)
1862 May 19, Homestead Act became law and provided cheap land for settlement of West.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1862 May 20, President Lincoln signed the Homestead Act, providing 250 million acres of free land to settlers in the West. It officially opened the Nebraska territory for settlement, leading to statehood in 1867. The US government passed the Homestead Act to stop the spread of slavery to the Western territories. Public land was awarded to any head of a family on condition that the settlers improve the land and live there for 5 years.
(Hem., 5/97, p.20)(HNQ, 12/3/00)(HN, 5/20/01)
1862 May 23, Stonewall Jackson took Fort Royal, Virginia, in the Valley Campaign.
(HN, 5/23/98)
1862 May 24, Westminster Bridge opened across the Thames.
(MC, 5/24/02)
1862 May 25, Battle of Winchester, VA.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1862 May 25, Johann N. Nestroy (60) Austrian actor (Einmal Keine Sorgen Haben), died.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1862 May 27, Battle of Hanover Court House, VA (Slash Church, Peake's Station).
(MC, 5/27/02)
1862 May 29, Confederate General P.T. Beauregard retreated to Tupelo, Mississippi. He had taken command of the Trans-Mississippi area after the death of General Albert Sidney Johnson.
(HN, 5/29/99)
1862 May 29, Franciszek Wincenty Mirecki (71), composer, died.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1862 May 30, Confederate General Beauregard evacuated Corinth, Mississippi and Union troops under Union General Henry Halleck entered.
(HN, 5/30/98)
1862 May 30, Battle of Front Royal, VA.
(MC, 5/30/02)
1862 May 31, At the Battle of Fair Oaks, McClellan defeated the Confederates outside of Richmond.
(HN, 5/31/98)
1862 May, Union Colonel Benjamin H. Grierson was commissioned a major in the 6th Illinois Cavalry. He proved to be an excellent cavalry leader despite his prewar experience as a music teacher who hated horses. Grierson had traveled to various small towns organizing amateur bands. When the war began, the Midwesterner enlisted as a private in the infantry. He very much wanted to do his share of the fighting on foot; while a child, he had been kicked in the face by a horse and still harbored a severe dislike for the equine creatures. This was not to be. A man with little military training or experience--and a pronounced dislike of horses--would soon prove to be one of the most skilled cavalry leaders of the war. His raids in early 1863 greatly helped Grant’s army in the siege of Vicksburg.
(HN, 6/28/01)
1862 Jun 1, General Robert E. Lee assumed command of the Confederate Army outside Richmond after General Joe Johnston was injured at Seven Pines. Robert E. Lee received a field command: the Army of Northern Virginia.
(DTnet, 6/1/97)(HN, 6/1/98)(HNQ, 8/2/01)
1862 Jun 4, Confederates evacuated Ft. Pillow, Tenn.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1862 Jun 6, The city of Memphis surrendered to the Union Navy after an intense naval engagement on the Mississippi River.
(HN, 6/6/98)
1862 Jun 6, Battle of Port Royal, SC (Port Royal Ferry). [see Jul 4, 1862]
(MC, 6/6/02)
1862 Jun 7, William Mumford became the 1st US citizen to be hanged for treason.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1862 Jun 7, James J. Andrews (b.1829), civilian Union spy, was hanged in Atlanta for leading the April 12 Union raid in Georgia that stole the locomotive “General" in an effort to disrupt Confederate transport. 7 others Union men were also hanged for the raid.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_J._Andrews)
1862 Jun 8, The Army of the Potomac defeated the Confederates at the Battle of Cross Keys, Virginia, during the Peninsula Campaign.
(HN, 6/8/98)
1862 Jun 9, Battle of Port Republic, last of 5 battles in Jackson's Valley camp.
(MC, 6/9/02)
1862 Jun 12, Confederate General J. E. B. Stuart began his ride around the Union Army outside of Richmond, Virginia.
(HN, 6/12/99)
1862 Jun 15, General J.E.B. Stuart completes his "ride around McClellan."
(HN, 6/15/98)
1862 Jun 19, Slavery was outlawed in U.S. territories. President Abraham Lincoln outlined his Emancipation Proclamation. News of the document reached the south and Texas through General Gordon Granger.
(BEP, 1994)(DTnet, 6/19/97)(HN, 6/19/99)
1862 Jun 21, Union and Confederate forces skirmished at the Chickahominy Creek during the Peninsular Campaign.
(HN, 6/21/98)
1862 Jun 24, U.S. intervention saved the British and French at the Dagu forts in China.
(HN, 6/24/98)
1862 Jun 25, The first day of the Seven Days Campaign began with fighting at Oak Grove, Virginia, with Robert E. Lee commanding the Confederate Army for the first time.
(HN, 6/25/98)
1862 Jun 26, General Robert E. Lee attacked McClellan's line at Mechanicsville of day 2 of the Seven Days battle near Richmond, Va.
(HN, 6/26/98)(MC, 6/26/02)
1862 Jun 27, May Irwin, US comedienne, singer (A Hot Time in the Old Town), was born.
(SC, 6/27/02)
1862 Jun 27, Confederates broke through the Union lines at the Battle of Gaines’ Mill on the 3rd day of the Seven Days Battle in Virginia.
(HN, 6/27/98)
1862 Jun 28, At Garnett’s and Golding’s farms, fighting continued for a 4th day between Union and Confederate forces during the Seven Days in Virginia.
(HN, 6/28/98)
1862 Jun 29, Union forces continued to fall back from Richmond, but put up a fight at the Battle of Savage’s Station on day 5 of the 7 Days Battle.
(HN, 6/29/98)(MC, 6/29/02)
1862 Jun 30, The Confederates failed to coordinate their attacks at the Battle of White Oak Swamp, allowing the Union forces to retreat to Malvern Hill in Virginia on Day 6 of the 7 Days-Battle. This battle in Virginia was alternately known as the battle of White Oak Swamp, Frayser’s Farm, Glendale, Charles City Cross Roads, Nelson’s Farm, New Market Cross Roads and Turkey Bend!
(HN, 6/30/98)(HNQ, 3/5/01)(AM, 11/04, p.28)
1862 Jun 30, Julian Scott (16) sustained a hip injury during the Battle of White Oak Swamp. During his nine-month convalescence he developed a friendship with millionaire Henry Clark, who encouraged Scott to develop his artistic talent. After he obtained an honorable discharge from the army, Scott returned to the front to record the war through his art.
(HNQ, 12/20/02)
1862 Jun 30, Gustave Flaubert completed "Salammbo."
(MC, 6/30/02)
1862 Jun, Some 5,000 wounded soldiers came into Richmond after the Battle of Seven Pines.
(AH, 6/02, p.23)
1862 Jun, SF Lawmakers signed a petition to anoint Lazarus (d.1963) and Bummer (d.1865), 2 popular rat catching dogs, as official city property and exempt from the recently passed muzzle law. In 1984 Malcolm E. Barker authored “Bummer & Lazarus: San Francisco’s Famous Dogs."
(SSFC, 1/27/02, p.D6)(SFC, 1/30/04, p.A23)(SSFC, 7/24/11, p.E11)
1862 Jun, Samuel and Florence Baker arrived in Khartoum, Sudan, on their search for explorers John Speke and James Grant.
(ON, 10/01, p.9)
1862 Jul 1, Abraham Lincoln instituted an income tax to pay for the Civil War. The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was founded. Internal Revenue Law imposed federal taxes on inheritance, tobacco & a progressive rate on incomes over $600.
(SFC, 11/2/96, p.D1)(WSJ, 12/15/95, p.A-1)
1862 Jul 1, Pres. Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act.
(SSFC, 9/23/12, p.H3)
1862 Jul 1, The US Congress outlawed polygamy for the 1st time. The Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act, signed by Pres. Lincoln, made polygamy illegal in American territories. It led to the prosecution of over 1300 Mormons. It also granted large tracts of public land to the states with the directive to sell for the support of institutions teaching the mechanical and agricultural arts. It also obligated state male university students to military training. The education initiative resulted in 68 land-grant colleges.
(SFEM, 6/28/98, p.39)(SFEM, 1/30/00, p.8,14)(HNQ, 10/6/02)(MC, 7/1/02)
1862 Jul 1, In day 7 of the 7 Days Battle Union artillery stopped a Confederate attack at Malvern Hill, Virginia. Casualties totaled: US 15,249 and CS 17,583.
(HN, 7/1/98)(MC, 7/1/02)
1862 Jul 1, Czar Alexander II granted Jews the right to publish books.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1862 Jul 2, Lincoln signed an act granting land for state agricultural colleges. [see Jul 1]
(SC, 7/2/02)
1862 Jul 4, Charles Dodgson, an Oxford mathematician whose penname of Lewis Carroll would make him world famous, told little Alice Liddell on a boat trip the fairy tale he had dreamed up for her called "Alice's Adventures Underground." He later wrote it out for her and it became the classic children's tale, "Alice in Wonderland."
(IB, Internet, 12/7/98)
1862 Jul 4, Battle at Green River, Ky. (Morgan's Ohio Raid).
(Maggio, 98)
1862 Jul 4, Battle of Port Royal, SC. (Port Royal Ferry). [see Jun 6, 1862]
(Maggio, 98)
1862 Jul 8, Odore R. Timby patented a revolving gun turret.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1862 Jul 9, Gen. John Hunt Morgan captured Tompkinsville, Ky.
(MC, 7/9/02)
1862 Jul 10, Helene Schjerfbeck (d.1946), Finnish painter, was born.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helene_Schjerfbeck)
1862 Jul 11, President Abraham Lincoln appointed General Henry Halleck as general in chief of the Federal army. [see Aug 11] Stephen Ambrose later authored "Halleck: Lincoln’s Chief of Staff."
(HN, 7/11/98)(WSJ, 8/20/01, p.A8)
1862 Jul 12, The US Congress authorized the Medal of Honor. Between 1861 and 1999 the medal was awarded to 3,410 members of the US armed forces. The Web site for the US Army Center of Military History: www2.army.mil/cmh-pg/moh1.htm
(AP, 7/12/97)(SFC, 5/31/99, p.A7)
1862 Jul 12, Federal troops occupied Helena, Arkansas.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1862 Jul 13, Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest defeated a Union army at Murfreesboro, Tennessee. [see Aug 13]
(HN, 7/13/98)
1862 Jul 15, Lt. Isaac Brown took the Confederate ironclad C.S.S. Arkansas into the Mississippi River and engaged 3 Union ships near Vicksburg. The CSS Arkansas vs. USS Carondelet and Queen of the West engaged at Yazoo River.
(ON, 10/02, p.12)(MC, 7/15/02)
1862 Jul 16, Ida Bell Wells, first president of the American Negro League, was born.
(HN, 7/16/98)
1862 Jul 16, David G. Farragut became the first rear admiral in the U.S. Navy.
(AP, 7/16/97)
1862 Jul 16, Two Union soldiers and their servant ransacked a house and raped a slave in Sperryville, Virginia.
(HN, 7/16/99)
1862 Jul 17, US army was authorized to accept blacks as laborers.
(MC, 7/17/02)
1862 Jul 17, James Glaisher (52), British meteorologist, rose to some 22,000 over Wolverhampton with balloonist Henry Tracy Coxwell in an attempt to set an altitude record. They reached 24,000 feet in a 2nd attempt on Aug 18. On Sep 5 Glaisher passed out as they reached 29,000 feet. At a record 7 miles Coxwell managed to begin their descent.
(ON, 4/03, p.11)
1862 Jul 19, Nathan Bedford Forrest made his 1st raid.
(MC, 7/19/02)
1862 Jul 20-Sep 20, A guerrilla campaign in GA (Porter's & Poindexter's) left US 580 and CS 2,866 casualties.
(MC, 7/20/02)
1862 Jul 24, Union fleets abandoned their attack on Vicksburg, Miss.
(ON, 10/02, p.12)
1862 Jul 24, Martin Van Buren (79), the eighth president of the United States, died in Kinderhook, N.Y.
(AP, 7/24/97)(HN, 7/24/98)
1862 Jul 29, At Moore’s Mill in Missouri, the Confederates were routed by Union guerrillas.
(HN, 7/29/98)
1862 Jul, The bugle call known as "Taps," originally based on a French bugle signal called "tatoo" was rewritten by Union Gen’l. Daniel Adams Butterfield with the help of an aide and brigade bugler, Oliver W. Norton. Up to then the army’s infantry call to end the day was the French final call: "L’Extinction des feux."
(SFC, 2/4/98, p.E8)
1862 Jul, Another 10 thousand wounded men came into Richmond along with thousands of Federal prisoners.
(AH, 6/02, p.23)
1862 Jul, John Speke and James Grant discovered Ripon Falls at the northern end of Lake Victoria (Uganda), which he identified as the source of the White Nile.
(http://tinyurl.com/qtxrk)
1862 Aug 1, James Henley Thornwell (b.1812), Presbyterian preacher from South Carolina, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Henley_Thornwell)
1862 Aug 2, The US Army Ambulance Corps was established by Maj. Gen. George McClellan.
(HN, 8/2/00)
1862 Aug 2, Union General John Pope captured Orange Court House, Virginia.
(HN, 8/2/98)
1862 Aug 5, Battle of Baton Rouge, LA.
(MC, 8/5/02)
1862 Aug 6, Confederate Army ironclad "Arkansas" was badly damaged in Union attack.
(MC, 8/6/02)
1862 Aug 8, Minnesota’s 5th Infantry fought the Sioux Indians in Redwood, Minn., and 24 soldiers were killed.
(SFC, 2/7/03, p.A23)
1862 Aug 9, Hector Berlioz' opera "Beatrice et Benedict," premiered in Baden-Baden.
(MC, 8/9/02)
1862 Aug 9, At Cedar Mountain, Virginia, Confederate General "Stonewall" Jackson repelled an attack by Union forces. Gen. Charles S. Winder was killed.
(HN, 8/9/98)(MC, 8/9/02)
1862 Aug 11, Carrie James Bond, songwriter who wrote "I Love You Truly" and "A Perfect Day," was born.
(HN, 8/10/98)
1862 Aug 11, President Abraham Lincoln appointed Union General Henry Halleck to the position of general in chief of the Union Army. [see Jul 11]
(HN, 8/10/98)
1862 Aug 12, Gen John Hunt Morgan and his raiders capture Gallatin, TX.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1862 Aug 13, Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest defeated a Union army under Thomas Crittenden at Murfreesboro, Tennessee. [see Jul 13]
(HN, 8/13/98)
1863 Aug 13, Eugene Delacroix (b.1798), French artist, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Delacroix)
1862 Aug 16, Amos Alonzo Stagg, football pioneer, inventor of the tackling dummy, was born in West Orange, New Jersey.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1862 Aug 18, Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart’s headquarters was raided by Union troops of the 5th New York and 1st Michigan cavalries.
(HN, 8/18/98)
1862 Aug 18, A Sioux Uprising began uprising in Minnesota. It resulted in more than 800 white settlers dead and 38 Sioux Indians condemned and hanged. The Minnesota Uprising began when four young Sioux murdered five white settlers at Acton. The Santee Sioux, who lived on a long, narrow reservation on the south side of the Minnesota River, were reacting to broken government promises and corrupt Indian agents. a military court sentenced 303 Sioux to die, but President Abraham Lincoln reduced the list. The 38 hangings took place on December 26, 1862, in Mankato, Minn.
(MC, 8/18/02)(HNQ, 1/4/00)
1862 Aug 22, Claude Debussy (d.1918), composer (La Mer, Clair de Lune), was born in St. Germain-en-Laye.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1862 Aug 22, Santee Sioux attacked Fort Ridgely, Minn.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1862 Aug 24, The C.S.S. Alabama was commissioned at sea off Portugal's Azore Islands, beginning a career that would see over 60 Union merchant vessels sunk or destroyed by the Confederate raider. The ship was built in secret in the in Liverpool shipyards, and a diplomatic crisis between the US government and Britain ensued when the Union uncovered the ship’s birth place.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1862 Aug 25, US Secretary of War authorized Gen. Rufus Saxton to arm 5,000 slaves.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1862 Aug 25, Union and Confederate troops skirmished at Waterloo Bridge, Virginia, during the Second Bull Run Campaign.
(HN, 8/25/98)
1862 Aug 26, Confederate General Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson encircled the Union Army under General John Pope at the Second Battle of Bull Run.
(HN, 8/26/99)
1862 Aug 27, As the Second Battle of Bull Run raged, Confederate soldiers attacked Loudoun County, Virginia.
(HN, 8/27/98)
1862 Aug 28, Mistakenly believing the Confederate Army to be in retreat, Union General John Pope attacks, began the Battle of Groveten. Both sides sustained heavy casualties.
(HN, 8/28/98)
1862 Aug 28, The Battle of Thoroughfare Gap, VA.
(MC, 8/28/01)
1862 Aug 28, Confederate spy Belle Boyd was released from Old Capital Prison in Washington, DC.
(MC, 8/28/01)
1862 Aug 29, P.M.B. Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgium, poet (Blue Bird, Nobel 1911), was born.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1862 Aug 29, The US Bureau of Engraving & Printing began operation.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1862 Aug 29, Union General John Pope’s army was defeated by a smaller Confederate force at the Second Battle of Bull Run.
(HN, 8/29/98)
1862 Aug 30, Union forces were defeated by the Confederates at the Second Battle of Bull Run in Manassas, Va. Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell fought at the Second Battle of Manassas, which was also a Union defeat (the Union army in this case was commanded by Maj. Gen. John Pope). McDowell was then relieved of his command until he was sent to command the Department of the Pacific in 1864, where he finished the war.
(AP, 8/30/97)(HNQ, 7/30/01)
1862 Aug 30, In the Battle of Altamont, Tennessee, Confederates beat Union forces.
(MC, 8/30/01)
1862 Sep 1, A federal tax was levied on tobacco, especially that grown in Confederate states.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1862 Sep 1, Battle at Chantilly (Ox Hill), Virginia, left 2100 casualties.
(AM, 11/04, p.24)
1862 Sep 1, Oliver Tilden of the Bronx was killed in the Civil War in Virginia.
(SC, 9/1/02)
1862 Sep 4, Robert E. Lee's Confederate 50,000-man army invaded Maryland, starting the Antietam Campaign. New York Tribune reporter George Smalley scooped the world with his vivid account of the Battle of Antietam.
(HN, 9/4/98)(MC, 9/4/01)
1862 Sep 5, Lee crossed Potomac & entered Maryland. [see Sep 4]
(MC, 9/5/01)
1862 Sep 6, Stonewall Jackson occupied Frederick, Maryland.
(MC, 9/6/01)
1862 Sep 9, Gen’l. Lee split his army and sent Jackson to capture Harpers Ferry.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1862 Sep 11, O. Henry was born. This was the pen name of William Sydney Porter, short story writer, who wrote "The Gift of the Magi," and "The Last Leaf." The name was taken from a French chemist, Ossian Henry, that he noticed while working at a pharmacy.
(HN, 9/11/98)(SFEC, 9/3/00, Z1 p.2)
1862 Sep 12, The Battle of Harper’s Ferry took place in West Virginia.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1862 Sep 13, Union troops in Frederick, Maryland, discovered General Robert E. Lee’s attack plans for the invasion of Maryland wrapped around a pack of cigars. They gave the plans to General George B. McClellan who did nothing with them for the next 14 hours.
(HN, 9/13/98)
1862 Sep 14, At the battles of South Mountain and Crampton’s Gap, Maryland Union troops smashed into the Confederates as they closed in on what would become the Antietam battleground. Confederates delayed McClellan’s advance against Lee.
(HN, 9/14/98)(AM, 11/04, p.28)
1862 Sep 14, A contingent of Federal troops escaped from the beleaguered Harper's Ferry.
(www.nps.gov/hafe/jackson.htm)
1862 Sep 14, In San Francisco some 3,000 people packed into Platt’s Music Hall at Bush and Montgomery to hear Unitarian minister Starr King (1824-1864) speak on behalf of the Sanitary Commission, a forerunner of the Red Cross. His speech inspired businessmen to raise money and within 5 days $100,000 was raised. In one year California raised some $500,000.
(SFC, 11/30/13, p.C3)
1862 Sep 15, Confederates captured the Union weapon arsenal at Harpers Ferry, WV, securing the rear of Robert E. Lee's forces in Maryland.
(HN, 9/15/99)
1862 Sep 15, John T. Wilder, the Union commander at Munfordville, used unconventional methods to stall Confederate General Braxton Bragg’s advance through Kentucky. On September 15, Bragg arrived to find some 4,000 men behind well-built defenses--far more than he had anticipated. He brought up more units and surrounded the area, but instead of pressing his advantage, agreed to a suggestion made by his subordinate, Maj. Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner. Buckner suggested that he be allowed to parley with the garrison and convince them of the hopelessness of their position. Bragg grudgingly acquiesced.
(HNQ, 4/26/01)
1862 Sep 16, "Fighting Joe" Major General Joseph Hooker’s I Corps crossed Antietam Creek on to strike the Confederates’ left flank.
(HN, 8/12/98)
1862 Sep 17, The Battle of Antietam at Sharpsburg, Maryland, the bloodiest day in US history, commenced. Fighting in the corn field, Bloody Lane and Burnside’s Bridge raged all day as the Union and Confederate armies suffered a combined 26,293 (23,585) casualties. New York Tribune reporter George Smalley scooped the world with his vivid account of the Battle of Antietam, also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg. During the battle an entire Union corps spent most of the bloodiest single day of the Civil War waiting to cross the creek over that bridge, opposed by a contingent of Georgia riflemen. Late in the day Gen. Ambrose Burnside sent his Union troops across the bridge in a major disaster. The rest of the Union IX Corps followed, but by day’s end, a Confederate flank attack sent the corps back across the river. Over 23,000 [23,110] men, both Union and Confederate, were killed or wounded. The battle resulted in about 10,000 Confederate and 12,000 Union casualties. The next day, Robert E. Lee began his retreat back across the Potomac River. 2,108 Union troops and 1,512 Confederates died. In 2002 James M. McPherson authored "Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam: The Battle that changed the Course of the Civil War."
(HN, 9/17/98)(HNPD, 9/17/98)(SFC, 7/7/96, T6)(AP, 9/17/97)(SFC, 9/22/01, p.A3)(WSJ, 9/12/02, p.D8)(WSJ, 9/17/02, p.D8)
1862 Sep 17, Sgt. William McKinley and a single volunteer drove a wagon of hot coffee and warm food through Confederate fire at Antietam to the men of the 23rd Ohio regiment. Col. Rutherford B. Hayes promoted him to lieutenant for his bravery and initiative.
(WSJ, 12/12/03, p.W9)
1862 Sep 17, Battle of Cumberland Gap, Tenn., was evacuated by Federals.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1862 Sep 18, After waiting all day for a Union attack which never came at Antietam, Confederate General Robert E. Lee began a retreat out of Maryland and back to Virginia. At Antietam, George McClellan and his ‘bodyguard’ dawdled throughout a long ‘Fatal Thursday.’
(HN, 9/18/98)
1862 Sep 21, William Benjamin Gould and 7 other black men stole a boat and rowed past Fort Caswell, NC. They were picked up the next day by the Union warship Cambridge. In 2002 Prof. W.B. Gould published his great-grandfather’s diary "Dairy of a Contraband: The Civil War Passage of a Black Sailor."
(SFC, 9/2/02, p.A1)
1862 Sep 21, 300 Indians were sentenced to hang in Mankato, Minnesota.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1862 Sep 22, President Lincoln announced at a cabinet meeting that he intended to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all slaves in rebel states should be free as of Jan. 1, 1863. President Abraham Lincoln brought the issue of freedom to the forefront of the Civil War when he delivered the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet, a few days after the bloody Battle of Antietam. The proclamation stated that slaves in any of the states in rebellion against the Union would be freed if the states had not returned to the Union by January 1, 1863. After that, nearly 180,000 black soldiers enlisted to fight the Confederates until the end of the war.
(SFE Mag., 2/12/95, p. 30)(AP, 9/22/97)(HNPD, 9/22/98)
1862 Sep 23, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation was published in Northern Newspapers.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1862 Sep 24, President Abraham Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus against anyone suspected of being a Southern sympathizer.
(HN, 9/24/98)
1862 Sep 24, The Confederate Congress adopted the confederacy seal.
(MC, 9/24/01)
1862 Sep 27, Louis Botha, commander-in-chief of the Boar Army against the British and first president of South Africa, was born.
(HN, 9/27/98)
1862 Sep 29, Union general Jefferson C. Davis shot and killed a fellow general in a dispute at a hotel during the Civil War. After a series of angry confrontations with General William Nelson, Davis shot his superior officer to death in a Louisville, Kentucky, hotel. Because of the scarcity of officers needed to form a court-martial for a trial, Davis was never charged with the crime and went on to build an extensive Civil War combat record. Davis was of no relation to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
(HNQ, 3/20/00)
1862 Sep, The troops of the 1st Louisiana Native Guards were free black men who lived in New Orleans. When President Abraham Lincoln issued his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation he invited black men in Confederate territory to join the Union army. Union Major General Benjamin Butler immediately mustered the 1st Louisiana Native Guards into Federal service, making them the Union’s first black soldiers. They had volunteered for state service in the Civil War, and served as a home guard unit. When New Orleans fell to Union forces in April 1862, the black troops remained in the city and offered their services to Butler.
(HNQ, 2/21/02)
1862 Oct 2, An Army under Union General Joseph Hooker arrived in Bridgeport, Alabama to support the Union forces at Chattanooga.
(HN, 10/2/98)
1862 Oct 3, At the Battle of Corinth, Mississippi, a Union army defeated the Confederates.
(HN, 10/3/98)
1862 Oct 4, Edward Stratemeyer, author, was born. He created the Hardy Boys, Rover Boys, Nancy Drew and the Bobbsey Twins. The first series of books written/produced by Stratemeyer was The Rover Boys, written under the pseudonym of Arthur M. Winfield. There were 30 volumes, written between 1899 and 1926. The Bobbsey Twins series (Laura Lee Hope) was next, and is the oldest "surviving" series, extending to 72 volumes, written between 1904 and 1979. Tom Swift, attributed to Victor Appleton, began in 1910 and there were 40 volumes before the series ended in 1941. (There was also a Tom Swift, Jr. series, by Victor Appleton II.) The Hardy Boys (Franklin W. Dixon, 85 volumes from 1927 to 1985) and Nancy Drew (Carolyn Keene, 78 volumes from 1930 to 1985) are the other best-known Stratemeyer books.
(HN, 10/4/00)(http://pw2.netcom.com/~drmike99/aboutbobbsey.html)
1862 Oct 4, Battle of Corinth, Mississippi, ended.
(MC, 10/4/01)
1862 Oct 8, The Union was victorious at the Battle of Perryville, the largest Civil War combat to take place in Kentucky.
(HN, 10/8/98)
1862 Oct 8, Otto von Bismarck became German republic chancellor.
(MC, 10/8/01)
1862 Oct 11, The Confederate Congress in Richmond passed a draft law allowing anyone owning 20 or more slaves to be exempt from military service. This law confirmed many southerners opinion that they were in a ‘rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight.’
(HN, 10/11/98)
1862 Oct 12, J.E.B. Stuart completed his "2nd ride around McClellan."
(MC, 10/12/01)
1862 Oct 12, There was a skirmish at Monocacy, Maryland.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1862 Oct 17, Battle of Leetown and Thoroughfare Gap, Va.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1862 Oct 18, Morgan's raiders captured federal garrison at Lexington, Ky.
(MC, 10/18/01)
1862 Oct 18, James Creighton died of ruptured bladder caused from hitting a HR on Oct 14th.
(MC, 10/18/01)
1862 Oct 19, Auguste Lumiere, French film pioneer, was born. He made the 1st film: "Workers Leaving Lumiere Factory."
(MC, 10/19/01)
1862 Oct 22, Union troops pushed 5,000 confederates out of Maysville, Ark., at the Second Battle of Pea Ridge.
(HN, 10/22/98)
1862 Oct 22, Battle at Old Fort Wayne, Indian Territory.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1862 Oct 22, Confederate troops reconquered the Cumberland Gap in Tennessee.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1862 Oct 27, A Confederate force was routed at the Battle of Labadieville, near Bayou Lafourche in Louisiana. John Howard Payne’s haunting ‘Home, Sweet Home’ was the Civil War soldier’s favorite song.
(HN, 10/27/98)
1862 Nov 3, There was a battle between gunboats at Bayou Teche, Louisiana.
(MC, 11/3/01)
1862 Nov 4, Dr. Richard Gatling received patent # 36,836 for his machine gun. In 2008 Julia Keller authored “Mr. Gatling’s Terrible Marvel: The Gun That Changed Everything and the Misunderstood Genius Who Invented It."
(www.civilwarhome.com/gatlinggun.htm)(Econ, 6/14/08, p.102)
1862 Nov 5, President Abraham Lincoln relieved General George McClellan of command of the Union Army of the Potomac and named Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside commander of the Army of the Potomac.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_McClellan)
1862 Nov 7, The body of exiled Bahadur Shah Zafar II was lowered into an unmarked grave in Rangoon (Burma-Myanmar). Zafar II, the last Mughal emperor in India, was deposed in the 1857 sepoy mutiny. In 2006 William Dalrymple authored “The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi, 1857."
(Econ, 11/11/06, p.96)
1862 Nov 9, General US Grant issued orders to bar Jews from serving under him. The order was quickly rescinded.
(MC, 11/9/01)
1862 Nov 11, Verdi's Opera "La Forza Del Destino" premiered in St Petersburg, Russia.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1862 Nov 13, Lewis Carroll wrote in his diary, "Began writing the fairy-tale of Alice—I hope to finish it by Christmas."
(HN, 11/13/00)
1862 Nov 13, Battle of Holly Spring, Miss.
(MC, 11/13/01)
1862 Nov 15, Gerhart Hauptmann, German author (Before Dawn- Nobel 1912), was born.
(MC, 11/15/01)
1862 Nov 17, Union General Burnside marched north out of Washington, D.C. to begin the Fredericksburg Campaign.
(HN, 11/17/98)
1862 Nov 20, Confederate army of Tennessee organized under Gen. Braxton Bragg.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1862 Nov 24, M. Levy published Gustave Flaubert’s "Salammbo."
(MC, 11/24/01)
1862 Nov 27, George Armstrong Custer met his future bride, Elizabeth Bacon, at a Thanksgiving party.
(HN, 11/27/98)
1862 Nov 28, The Battle at Cane Hill, Arkansas, left 475 casualties. In late November, Maj. Gen. Thomas C. Hindman detached Brig. Gen. John Marmaduke's cavalry from Van Buren north to occupy the Cane Hill area. Hearing of this movement, Brig. Gen. James Blunt advanced to meet Marmaduke's command and destroy it, if possible. The Union vanguard encountered Col. Joe Shelby's brigade, which fought a delaying action to protect their supply trains. Shelby gradually gave ground until establishing a strong defensive perimeter on Cove Creek where he repulsed a determined attack. The Federals withdrew to Cane Hill, while the Confederates returned to Van Buren.
(http://www2.cr.nps.gov/abpp/battles/ar004.htm)
1862 Nov 28, Battle of Hooly Spring, Ms.
(MC, 11/28/01)
1862 Nov, Jean Henri Dunant (1828-1910) published "A Memory of Solferino." His ideas about creation of a volunteer committee to care for war-wounded led to the creation in 1863 of the Permanent International Committee for Relief to Wounded Combatants, later called the International Red Cross. Dunant, a Swiss businessman, had witnessed the plight of thousands of wounded left helpless on the battlefield at Solferino, Italy, on June 24, 1859. Organizing local volunteers to help, Dunant brought aid to as many of the victims as he could.
(WUD, 1994, p.442)(HNQ, 9/16/99)(ON, 4/08, p.11)
1862 Dec 1, President Lincoln gave the State of the Union message to the 37th Congress. “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present… As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves."
(WSJ, 9/7/06, p.A20)
1862 Dec 3, Confederate rebels attacked a Federal forage train on the Hardin Pike near Nashville, Tenn.
(HN, 12/3/98)
1862 Dec 5, Union general Ulysses Grant’s cavalry received a setback in an engagement on the Mississippi Central Railroad at Coffeeville, Mississippi.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1862 Dec 6, President Lincoln ordered the hanging of 39 of the 303 convicted Indians who participated in the Sioux Uprising in Minnesota. They were to be hanged on Dec. 26. The Dakota Indians were going hungry when food and money from the federal government was not distributed as promised. They led a massacre that left over 400 white people dead. The uprising was put down and 300 Indians were sentenced to death. Pres. Lincoln reduced the number to 39, who were hanged. The government then nullified the 1851 treaty.
(WSJ, 2/5/98, p.A6)(HN, 12/6/98)
1862 Dec 7, Confederate forces surprise an equal number of Union troops at the Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas.
(HN, 12/7/99)
1862 Dec 8, Georges Feydeau, French playwright (La Dame de Chez Maxim's), was born.
(MC, 12/8/01)
1862 Dec 10, U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill creating the state of West Virginia.
(HN, 12/10/98)
1862 Dec 11, Union General Burnside occupied Fredericksburg and prepared to attack the Confederates under Robert E. Lee.
(HN, 12/11/98)
1862 Dec 12, The Union lost its first ship to a torpedo, the USS Cairo, in the Yazoo River.
(HN, 12/12/98)
1862 Dec 13, Confederate forces dealt Union troops a major defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg, Va. The Battle of Fredericksburg ended at Marye’s Heights with the bloody slaughter of Union troops, while Confederate President Davis reviewed Braxton Bragg’s troops at Murfreesboro, Tenn. Burnside, newly appointed commander of an army of over 120,000, planned to cross the Rappahannock River and advance on the Confederate capital of Richmond. Some 78,000 troops under Confederate General Robert E. Lee took a strong position on the high ground near Fredericksburg, Virginia. Burnside’s assault resulted in over 12,500 casualties for the Union compared with about 5,000 for the entrenched Confederates. Burnside was relieved of command the following month.
(WUD, 1994, p.565)(AP, 12/13/97)(HN, 12/13/98)(HNQ, 10/14/00)
1862 Dec 15, Nathan B. Forrest crossed the Tennessee River at Clifton with 2,500 men to raid the communications around Vicksburg.
(HN, 12/15/98)
1862 Dec 15, In New Orleans, Union Major General Benjamin F. Butler turned his command over to Nathaniel Banks. The citizens of New Orleans held farewell parties for Butler, "The Beast," but only after he had already left. Maj. Gen Benjamin Butler was given the unusual nickname "Spoons" due to his apparent penchant for stealing the silver while occupying New Orleans. He was also called "Beast" for alleged insults to the women in the town. Both the names were coined by Confederates.
(HN, 12/15/98)(HNQ, 7/29/00)
1862 Dec 17, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant issued General Order No. 11 designed to combat a Civil War black market in cotton. Grant believed the trade was run primarily by Jewish traders and ordered Jews expelled in his military district. Pres. Lincoln rescinded the order a few weeks later. In 2012 Jonathan D. Sarna authored “When General Grant Expelled the Jews."
(SSFC, 4/22/12, p.F3)
1862 Dec 18, Grant announced the organization of his army in the West. Sherman, Hurlbut, McPherson, and McClernand would be Corps Commanders.
(HN, 12/18/98)
1862 Dec 18, Nathan B. Forrest engaged and defeated a Federal cavalry force near Lexington in his continued effort to disrupt supply lines.
(HN, 12/18/98)
1862 Dec 18, Samuel and Florence Baker departed Khartoum on their search for explorers John Speke and James Grant.
(ON, 10/01, p.9)
1862 Dec 19, Nathan B. Forrest tore up the railroads in Grant and Rosecrans' rear, causing considerable delays in the movement of Union supplies.
(HN, 12/19/98)
1862 Dec 19, Skirmish at Jackson-Salem Church, Tenn., left 80 casualties.
(MC, 12/19/01)
1862 Dec 20, Battle of Holly Spring, MS. [see Nov 13]
(MC, 12/20/01)
1862 Dec 20, Brig-gen Nathan B. Forrest occupied Trenton, Kentucky.
(MC, 12/20/01)
1862 Dec 20-Jan 3, The Vicksburg campaign.
(MC, 12/20/01)
1862 Dec 21, U.S. Congress authorized the Medal of Honor to be awarded to Navy personnel that had distinguished themselves by their gallantry in action.
(HN, 12/21/98)
1862 Dec 22-Jan 2, Raid on Morgan's: Bardstown to Elizabethtown, Ky.
(MC, 12/22/01)
1862 Dec 23, Union Gen. Ben "Beast" Butler was proclaimed a "felon, outlaw & common enemy of mankind" by Jefferson Davis.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1862 Dec 24, A Christmas present arrived a day early for the Federal troops at Columbus, Ky., in the way of artillery on board the USS New Era.
(HN, 12/24/98)
1862 Dec 25, President and Mrs. Lincoln visited hospitals in the Washington D.C. area on this Christmas Day.
(HN, 12/25/98)
1862 Dec 25, John Hunt Morgan and his raiders clashed with Union forces near Bear Wallow, Kentucky. Fighting also occurred at Green’s Chapel.
(HN, 12/25/99)
1862 Dec 26, In Minnesota 38 Santee Sioux were hanged in Mankato for their part in the Sioux Uprising. This marked the end of the US-Dakota War. In 2012 a memorial was unveiled for the 38 hanged men, the largest mass execution in US history.
(HN, 12/26/98)(SFC, 12/27/12, p.A8)
1862 Dec 26-28, Battle of Dumfries, Va.
(MC, 12/26/01)
1862 Dec 27, Rosecrans’ army moved slowly toward Bragg at Murfreesboro.
(HN, 12/27/98)
1862 Dec 27, Battle of Chickasaw Bluffs, Miss. (Chickasaw Bayou), began.
(MC, 12/27/01)
1862 Dec 27, Battle of Elizabethtown, KY.
(MC, 12/27/01)
1862 Dec 29, Battle of Chickasaw Bayou was fought by Sherman’s troops in order to gain the north side of Vicksburg. Confederate armies defeated Gen. Sherman.
(HN, 12/29/98)(MC, 12/29/01)
1862 Dec 29, The bowling ball was invented.
(MC, 12/29/01)
1862 Dec 30, The draft of the Emancipation Proclamation was finished and circulated around Lincoln's cabinet for comment.
(HN, 12/30/98)
1862 Dec 31, President Lincoln signed an act admitting West Virginia to the Union.
(AP, 12/31/97)
1862 Dec 31, Union General William Rosecrans' army repelled two Confederate attacks at the Battle of Murfreesboro (Stone's River).
(HN, 12/31/98)
1862 Dec 31, The USS Monitor sank in a storm off Cape Hatteras, NC., while being towed by the Rhode Island. 16 officers and seamen died. In 1973 scientists from North Carolina’s Duke University discovered the deteriorating relic 16 miles from the coast, in 240 feet of water. In 1975 the site was designated the nation’s first marine sanctuary, and it was the first shipwreck to be named a National Historic Landmark in the United States. In 2002 the turret was raised.
(SFC, 8/6/02, p.A2)(HNQ, 11/29/02)(ON, 10/08, p.5)
1862 Dec, German-born illustrator Thomas Nast, widely recognized as the father of political cartooning, is also responsible for our modern-day concept of Santa Claus. Nast, who came to the United States from Germany at age 6, received his art education at New York's National Academy of Design. At 15, he began working for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper for $4 a week. During his long career, Nast illustrated major news stories for many periodicals, but he is perhaps best remembered for his imaginative Christmas drawings that first appeared in Harper's Weekly in 1862 and continued for 30 years. Inspired by Clement Moore's poem "Twas the Night Before Christmas," Nast pictured Santa Claus as a jolly, white-bearded elf who lived at the North Pole and brought gifts only to good children. His drawings also portrayed many modern symbols we associate with Christmas--holly, toys under the Christmas tree and the reindeer-drawn sleigh on a snowy roof.
(HNPD, 12/25/99)
1862 Julius Rosenwald (d.1932), later president of Sears, Roebuck & Co., was born in Springfield, Ill. By 1931 he had financed the construction of 5,295 schools throughout the South in association with Booker T. Washington and William Baldwin Jr., a Boston railway executive and founder of the Urban League.
(WSJ, 2/24/98, p.A22)(WSJ, 4/23/02, p.D7)
1862 Claude Monet (22) began studying painting with Charles Gleyre, a retired artist in Paris.
(ON, 9/06, p.6)
1862 Sanford Robinson Gifford painted "Kauterskill Clove, in the Catskills." The 9x8 inch painting was auctioned in 1999 for $475,500 in NYC.
(WSJ, 7/9/99, p.W12)
1862 James Whistler painted his: "Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl," a portrait of his Irish mistress Joanna Hiffernan.
(WSJ, 1/2/06, p.D8)
1862 Mary Elizabeth Braddon published her sensation novel "Lady Audley's Secret." It was the first of its type and became a bestseller. Braddon was a former actress with 5 illegitimate children by a publisher whose wife was locked in an insane asylum.
(WSJ, 3/17/00, p.W8)
1862 William Brewer, surveyor, authored “Up and Down California," a journal based on the first survey of California.
(SSFC, 5/14/06, p.G9)
1862 Victor Hugo published "Les Miserables." The novel covers events in France from 1815 to 1833. In 2004 Mario Vargas Llosa authored his book-length Spanish essay: “The Temptation of the Impossible: Victor Hugo and ‘Les Miserables.’ The English translation came out in 2007.
(WSJ, 4/30/98, p.A17)(SFC, 6/30/07, p.E2)
1862 Jerry Thomas authored “How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant’s Companion." It also became known as the “Bar-Tenders Guide."
(WSJ, 3/10/07, p.P5)
1862 "Fathers and Sons" by Turgenev was published.
(NH, 6/96, p.22)
1862 The most popular song of the year was "Rally ‘Round the Flag."
(NH, 10/98, p.16)
1862 The Glee Club at the Univ. of Pennsylvania was founded by eight undergraduates.
(WSJ, 12/16/96, p.A1)
1862 The Buffalo Fine Arts Academy was founded in Buffalo, NY. In 1905 it opened the Albright-Knox Art Gallery following a generous gift from Buffalo entrepreneur and philanthropist John J. Albright.
(WSJ, 11/15/06, p.D14)(www.albrightknox.org/geninfo.html)
1862 In Napa Valley, Ca., Jacob Schram (1826-1905) purchases 200 acres on Diamond Mountain and founded the Schramsberg Winery. He used Chinese laborers to clear the forests, plant the vineyards and dig the caves to store his wine. In 1965 Jack and Jamie Davies purchased the winery.
(SFEM, 10/27/96, p.40)(SFC, 12/22/05, p.F1)(SFC, 1/18/08, p.A12)
1862 Pres. Lincoln made Andrew Johnson the military governor of Tennessee after Federal forces captured Nashville.
(SFC, 12/21/98, p.A3)
1862 The Washington DC bordello of Mary Ann Hall at 349 Maryland Ave. was rated at the top of a list of 450 brothels catalogued by the office of the federal provost marshal. The city had an estimated 5,000 prostitutes, 18 of whom resided at the 3-story brick Hall house.
(SFEC, 4/18/99, p.A24)
1862 The dark clouds of civil war gathered over the nation as two aggressive factions—the Wide-Awakes and the Minutemen—plotted to gain political control of Missouri and its most important city, St. Louis.
(HN, 7/29/98)
1862 The first US federal tax on beer was levied to finance the Civil War.
(SFC, 8/2/06, p.G7)
1862 The US battleship Monticello crashed trying to get past the US Navy and into Mobile Bay during the Civil War after sailing from Havana. In 1969 Hurricane Camille uncovered wreckage near Fort Morgan, Alabama, that some believed to be the Monticello, though others thought it was a schooner that ran aground in 1933.
(AP, 9/20/08)
1862 Confederate General Earl Van Dorn attacked Union forces at the Mississippi railroad town of Corinth in an effort to help Braxton Bragg’s invasion of Kentucky. With Union interest concentrated chiefly on Bragg’s invasion of Kentucky, Union General Grant’s command was scattered about western Tennessee and northern Mississippi in several garrisons. Impetuous and aggressive (he was a former Indian fighter), Van Dorn evaluated potential objectives before deciding to attack the strongest, the one at Corinth, Miss. Two strategic railroads, the Mobile & Ohio and the Memphis & Charleston, linked up there, and control of the rails was, as always, a paramount concern in the war.
(HNQ, 4/19/01)
1862 The Rhea County Spartans, an all-girl cavalry company in Tennessee, began as a lark during the American Civil War, but soon attracted the attention of unamused Union officers. The Rhea County Girls’ Company was created through a combination of boredom and the desire to be a part of the war for Southern independence. Almost all of the "sidesaddle soldiers" had fathers or brothers in the Confederate military, and the young ladies evidently felt frustrated because their gender prevented them from enlisting. Since they could not actually join the Confederate Army, they did the next best thing: They created an army of their own.
(HNQ, 4/12/01)
1862 The Dakota Indians were going hungry when food and money from the federal government was not distributed as promised. They led a massacre that left over 400 white people dead. The uprising was put down and 300 Indians were sentenced to death. Pres. Lincoln reduced the number to 39, who were hanged. The government then nullified the 1851 treaty.
(WSJ, 2/5/98, p.A6)
1862 The Choctaw Indians issued a 75 cent note and the Cherokee Indians issued a $1 bill.
(SFEC, 1/25/98, Z1 p.8)
1862 Austin, Nevada, was born when a horse kicked loose a rock revealing rich silver ore.
(ACC, 2004)
1862 David Walley of New York discovered natural hot springs about 90 miles south of Carson City.
(SSFC, 12/18/05, p.F4)
1862 The San Francisco Stock and Bond Exchange was established by 19 founding members as a marketplace for mining company stocks following the Comstock Lode strike.
(SSFC, 1/25/04, p.I3)
1862 The Corners area by Mt. Diablo, Ca., changed its name to Walnut Creek following the arrival of a post office.
(SFCM, 8/24/03, p.7)(SFC, 7/17/06, p.B5)
1862 In southern California Isaias Hellman founded the first synagogue in Los Angeles. It became the Wilshire Boulevard Reform Temple.
(SSFC, 11/30/08, Books p.3)
1862 Rogers, Smith & Co. of New Haven, Conn., organized to manufacture silver-plated holloware. The company was sold in 1863 to Meriden Britannia Co., but the New Haven operation continued to 1877.
(SFC, 11/29/06, p.G3)
1862 Frederick August Otto Schwartz (FAO Schwartz) opened up a toy shop in Baltimore 6 years after arriving in America from Germany. In 1870 he moved to New York. In 1880 he moved to larger quarters on Union Square.
(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.F3)(WSJ, 11/21/03, p.B1)
1862 Merck patented cocaine.
(WSJ, 3/14/00, p.A20)
1862 Mary Jane Patterson (1840-1894) received a degree from Oberlin College, Ohio, becoming the 1st black female college graduate in the US.
(SSFC, 2/15/04, p.C6)
1862 In Lone Pine, Ca., settlers shot it out with a local band of Paiute Indians. 11 Paiutes were killed and 2 settlers were wounded.
(SFEC, 8/17/97, p.T9)
1862 The Pacific Mail Co.'s Golden Gate steamer sank off Manzanillo. An English salvage company recovered gold bullion and artifacts in 1928.
(SFC, 6/20/03, p.E2)
1862 The British Schooner Alma was captured off the coast of North Carolina by the US brig Perry. She is today called the Australia and is owned by the Woodfield Fish and Oyster Co., of Galesville, Maryland.
(NG, Sept. 1939, J. Maloney p.356)
1862 In Australia Scotsman explorer John McDouall Stuart crossed the continent from Adelaide to Port Darwin.
(HNQ, 5/26/98)
1862 In Austria Julius Meinl founded a coffee and food store that developed into a chain and later Meinl Bank.
(Econ, 8/2/08, p.74)
1862 Britain legislated a Companies Act that defined the limited-liability joint stock company, and removed the restriction that they be established by an act of Parliament.
(WSJ, 5/7/03, p.D10)
1862 In Britain Lord Kelvin presented his theoretical calculation of the energy storage capacity of the sun. The calculation led to an estimate of the sun’s age- later called Kelvin time. His estimate was way too low due to lack of knowledge on atomic energy.
(I&I, Penzias, p.157)
1862 William Banting, a London undertaker, was the first dieter on record. He went from 253 pounds to 153 on lean meat, fish and fruit.
(SFEC, 2/14/99, Z1 p.8)
1862 John Hanning Speke found a river that issued from Lake Victoria to the north and impetuously cabled the Royal Geographic Society in London, "...the Nile is settled."
(NG, May 1985, R. Caputo, p.629)
1862 The East India House in London, headquarters of the East India Company, was demolished.
(Econ, 12/17/11, p.111)
1862 By this time 75% of Britain’s cotton originated in India.
(Econ, 1/3/15, p.68)
1862 In Canada Billy Barker, a former British sailor, struck gold in an area called Williams Creek in British Columbia (Canada). The strike gave birth to the town of Barkerville.
(SSFC, 4/7/13, p.P4)
1862 Facundo Bacardi Masso founded a rum business in Cuba.
(SFC, 9/9/08, p.E3)
1862 Empress Eugenie opened Le Grand Hotel in Paris to celebrate French science and art.
(Econ, 12/21/13, p.101)
1862 Walter Murray Gibson arrived at Lanai, Ha., to reorganize a Mormon colony and bought one chief-owned plot for the church. Gibson was later excommunicated for keeping the property in his name. He later bought other chief-owned lands and leased property for sheep and goat ranching.
(SFC, 6/27/12, p.D6)
1862 The Baymen, named after the Bay of Honduras, sought protection from their Spanish-speaking neighbors as a British colony, British Honduras.
(SFEC, 6/1/97, p.T3)
1862 Two New Zealanders, who married Hawaiian women, obtained a deed to Palmyra Atoll from King Kamehameha V.
(SFC, 5/4/00, p.A9)
1862 Francisco Solano Lopez (c1826-1870) became president of Paraguay following the death of his father, Carlos Antonio Lopez..
(http://reference.allrefer.com/encyclopedia/L/Lopez-Fr.html)(Econ, 12/22/12, p.46)
1862 Peruvian slavers arrived on Easter Island. Slaves that eventually returned brought smallpox.
(SSFC, 9/18/05, p.E14)
1862 Baron James Forester, a wealthy Scottish port wine shipper, capsized on the Douro River in Portugal and was dragged to the river bottom by his money belt full of gold coins.
(SFEC, 1/12/97, p.T7)
1862 An earthquake in Russia’s Lake Baikal region put 200 square km of lakeshore under water.
(Econ, 7/19/03, p.41)
1862 In Glasgow, Scotland, the Kelvinside Parish Church was built. It was later converted to Oran Mor, a west end performing arts center.
(SSFC, 2/10/13, p.H4)
1862 Swiss immigrants settled in Montevideo, Uruguay, and formed an agricultural community known as the Colonia Suiza.
(Hem., 2/96, p.26)
1862-1863 Louisa May Alcott, American author, went to Washington, D.C., in the winter to serve as a nurse in the newly established United States Sanitary Commission. She tended wounded soldiers, but after only a few weeks she became ill. In accordance with army medical practice of the time, Alcott was given large doses of calomel, an emetic containing mercury, which rendered her a semi-invalid. Alcott was a semi-invalid for the last 20 years of life.
(HNQ, 12/29/98)
1862-1868 Bartolome Mitre served as Argentina’s 1st constitutional president.
(WSJ, 1/9/02, p.A14)
1862-1877 In China the Dungan Revolt was a mainly ethnic war also known as the Hui Minorities War. The revolt arose over a pricing dispute involving bamboo poles, when a Han merchant selling to a Hui did not receive the amount demanded for the goods. Total casualties of the conflict were estimated at 8-12 million.
(http://tinyurl.com/ldphn6h)
1862-1893 David and John Jacob Decker founded and ran the Decker Bros. piano manufacturing firm. Their first piano patent was issued in 1859.
(SFC, 10/15/97, Z1 p.7)
1862-1906 Bitters bottles were manufactured in Tiffin, Ohio and Omaha, Neb. to hold "American Life Bitters," an alcoholic concoction of herbs and gin that was marketed as medicine.
(SFC, 6/3/98, Z1 p.6)
1862-1910 William Sydney Porter (aka O. Henry), American short story writer: "Inject a few raisins of conversation into the tasteless dough of existence."
(WUD, 1994, p.1120)(AP, 6/15/97)
1862-1922 Mori Ogai, Japanese writer. His work included "The Wild Goose."
(MT, Fall ‘96, p.15)
1862-1935 William Ashley "Billy" Sunday, American baseball player turned evangelist, is said to have said: If there is no Hell, a good many preachers are obtaining money under false pretenses. "Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you an automobile."
(AP, 10/19/97)(AP, 12/20/98)
1862-1944 Gerald Stanley Lee, American clergyman and author: "America is a tune. It must be sung together."
(AP, 3/3/99)
1862-1944 Nellie Simmons Meier, famous American palm reader. She lived most of her life in Indianapolis and studied the palms of such people as actress Mary Pickford, boxer Gene Tunney, Eleanor Roosevelt, Susan B. Anthony, and Amelia Erhart. She donated her palm prints to the Library of Congress in 1938 after publishing her 1937 best seller Lion’s Paws, a set of character sketches based on the palm prints.
(Civil., Jul-Aug., ‘95, p.54-57)
1862-1947 Nicholas Murray Butler, American educator. "Time was invented by Almighty God in order to give ideas a chance." "The force that rules the world is conduct, whether it be moral or immoral."
(AP, 4/5/97)(AP, 1/13/99)
1862-1956 In Grass Valley, California, the Idaho-Maryland gold mine produced about 2.4 million ounces of gold. The nearby Empire Mine produced 5.8 million ounces. In 2007 plans were underway for re-opening the Idaho-Maryland mine.
(WSJ, 11/9/07, p.B2)
1863 Jan, 1, All slaves held in rebellion territory in USA were made free by Abraham Lincoln's Sep 22, 1862, Emancipation Proclamation.
(HFA, ‘96, p.22)(V.D.-H.K.p.275)(AP, 1/1/98)(HN, 1/1/99)
1863 Jan 1, Confederate General Braxton Bragg and Union General William Rosecrans readjusted their troops as the Battle of Murfreesboro continued.
(HN, 1/1/99)
1863 Jan 1, The clipper ship Noonday hit an uncharted rock off the coast of San Francisco and sank in 240 feet of water. All hands were rescued and the rock was named Noonday.
(SFC, 9/17/14, p.A10)
1863 Jan 2, In the second day of hard fighting at Stone's River, near Murfreesboro, Tenn., Union troops defeated the Confederates. The battle, which began Dec 31, involved 80,000 troops and left 24,000 casualties.
(HN, 1/2/99)(AM, 11/04, p.28)
1863 Jan 4, General Halleck, by direction of President Lincoln, ordered U.S. Grant to revoke his infamous General Order No. 11 that expelled Jews from his operational area.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1863 Jan 4, Roller skates with 4 wheels were patented by James Plimpton of NY.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1863 Jan 8, Construction on the Central Pacific Railroad from Sacramento heading east was started. With pull from Gov. Leland Stanford, extensive government backing was obtained along with federal land grants in California that totaled 11.6 million acres, 11.4% of the state. $59 mil in 30-year railroad bonds was backed by the government and not paid back until 1909. The Northern Pacific Railroad was built by Nelson Bennett
(SFC, 7/8/96, p.D2)(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A22)
1863 Jan 10, London's Metropolitan, the world's first underground passenger railway, opened to the public. The first stretch of rail had opened the day before. It was nationalized in 1948. In 2004 Christian Wolmar authored “The Subterranean Railway: How the London Underground was Built and How it Changed the City Forever."
(AP, 1/10/98)(HN, 1/10/99)(Econ, 1/22/05, p.81)(AP, 1/9/13)
1863 Jan 11, Union forces captured Arkansas Post, or Ft. Hindman, Arkansas.
(MC, 1/11/02)
1863 Jan 11, The Confederate ship Alabama under Capt. Semmes flew a British flag and lured the USS Hatteras out of Galveston harbor. The Hatteras was quickly sunk.
(ON, 9/01, p.10)
1863 Jan 12, President Davis delivered his "State of Confederacy" address.
(MC, 1/12/02)
1863 Jan, 13, The black 1st Kansas Regiment was mustered in as a battalion.
(Smith., 4/95, p.14)
1863 Jan 13, Thomas Crapper pioneered a one-piece pedestal flushing toilet.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1863 Jan 17, David Lloyd George (d.1945), British Prime Minister, was born. First Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, English statesman: "It is always too late, or too little, or both. And that is the road to disaster."
(AP, 8/13/97)(HN, 1/17/99)
1863 Jan 22, In an attempt to out flank Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, General Ambrose Burnside led his army on a march north to Fredericksburg, but foul weather bogged his army down in what became known as "Mud March."
(HN, 1/22/99)
1863 Jan 22, The interim Lithuanian government in Warsaw announced an uprising against Russian rule. The uprising aspired to restore the Polish-Lithuanian state and was supported by large numbers of peasants.
(DrEE, 9/14/96, p.4)(LHC, 1/22/03)
1863 Jan 25, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker assumed command and undertook the reorganization of the demoralized Army of the Potomac. He commanded the Army of the Potomac during the Battle of Chancellorsville. By April, he thought he was ready to face Lee‘s Army of Northern Virginia. [see Jan 26]
(HNQ, 9/20/00)
1863 Jan 25, Battle of Kingston, NC.
(MC, 1/25/02)
1863 Jan 25, James Morrill (1824-1865), a British citizen, ended years of living among Australian Aborigines after a shipwreck in 1846.
(http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/morrill-james-2484)
1863 Jan 26, President Lincoln named General Joseph Hooker to replace Burnside as commander of the Army of the Potomac. [see Jan 25]
(HN, 1/26/99)
1863 Jan 31, The 1st South Carolina Volunteers, later called the 33rd U.S. Colored Troops was officially recognized. Components of the regiment had been in training since early 1962.
(Smith., 4/95, p.14)(MC, 1/31/02)
1863 Feb 1, A committee in Vilnius issued a manifesto and took up a leadership role for a national revolution.
(LHC, 2/1/03)
1863 Feb 3, Samuel Clemens became Mark Twain for 1st time. In Nevada the Territorial Enterprise in Comstock printed some humorous letters from a reader named “Josh." The editor hired the man, who was Samuel Clemens, for $25 a week. Clemens accepted and changed his pen name to Mark Twain. Sam had dropped the penname "Josh" and first signed himself "Mark Twain" in a letter written on January 31, 1863. The Territorial Enterprise published the letter in its Tuesday, February 3, 1863 issue (http://www.twainquotes.com/18630203t.html).
(SFEC, 3/8/98, BR p.6)
1863 Feb 9, A fire extinguisher was patented by Alanson Crane.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1863 Feb 9, Henri Dunant (1828-1910) addressed the Geneva Society for Public Welfare and asked the members to form a volunteer society to aid wounded soldiers. The Intl. Committee of Red Cross (Nobel 1917, 1944, 1963) was formed in Geneva, Switz. The red cross design based on the Swiss flag with the colors reversed.
(ON, 4/08, p.11)(www.redcross.org)(SFC, 6/20/06, p.A4)
1863 Feb 10, P.T. Barnum’s star midgets, Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren, are married.
(HN, 2/10/97)
1863 Feb 15, Samuel and Florence Baker encountered John Speke and James Grant at the frontier village of Gondokoro (southern Sudan). Speke and Grant said they had found the Nile’s headwaters at a lake they named Victoria (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda).
(ON, 10/01, p.9)
1863 Feb 24, Arizona was organized as a territory.
(AP, 2/24/98)
1863 Feb 24, Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest made a raid on Brentwood, Tennessee.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1863 Feb 25, The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) was created as a bureau of the US Department of the Treasury by the National Currency Act. The OCC was charged with responsibility for organizing and administering a system of nationally chartered banks and a uniform national currency. It was passed to create a market in government bonds needed to finance the Civil War. The act required that bank notes issued by commercial banks be uniform in appearance and that 90% be backed by collateral consisting of US Treasury securities. [see 1881-1890, currency decline] Prior to the Civil War virtually the only currency was local and issued by banks. The government issued "greenbacks" to finance the Civil War." The 1863 NCA was superseded by the National Bank Act of 1864.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Bank_Act)(WSJ,11/24/95, p.A-8)(WSJ, 6/27/96, p.B1)(Wired, 10/96, p.143)(WSJ, 1/13/98, p.A1)
1863 Feb 26, Pres. Lincoln signed a National Currency Act.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1863 Feb 28, Four Union gunboats destroyed the CSS Nashville near Fort McAllister, Ga. Popular during the Crimean War, the floating battery was revived by hard-pressed Confederates because the popular gunboats were not capable of doing the things that the batteries could do.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1863 Mar 2, The US Congress passed the False Claims Act to protect the government from being ripped off by suppliers outfitting the Union army. It is often referred to as the "Lincoln Law," because it was passed under the administration of President Abraham Lincoln.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_Claims_Act)(Econ, 8/30/14, p.22)
1863 Mar 2, Congress authorized track width of 4'-8½" for Union Pacific RR.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1863 Mar 3, President Abraham Lincoln signed the conscription act compelling U.S. citizens to report for duty in the Civil War or pay $300.00. 86,724 men paid the exemption cost to avoid service. The inequality of this arrangement led to the Draft Riots in New York.
(HN, 3/3/99)(HNQ, 10/18/00)(SSFC, 2/8/15, p.N5)
1863 Mar 3, Abraham Lincoln approved a charter for National Academy of Sciences.
(www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ABOUT_main_page)
1863 Mar 3, Free city delivery of mail was authorized by the U.S. Postal Service on this day. It replaced zone postage and 449 letter carriers were hired.
(HC, Internet, 3/3/98)(SC, 3/3/02)
1863 Mar 3, Congress authorized a US mint at Carson City, NV, and Gold certificates as currency.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1863 Mar 3, Federal ironclad ships bombed Fort McAllister, Georgia.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1863 Mar 3, Idaho Territory formed.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1863 Mar 4, Battle of Thompson's Station, Tennessee.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1863 Mar 9, U.S. Grant was appointed commander-in-chief of the Union forces.
(HN, 3/9/98)
1863 Mar 11, A naval engagement occurred between the CSS Alabama and the USS Hatteras.
(HN, 3/11/98)
1863 Mar 11, Union troops under General Ulysses S. Grant gave up their preparations to take Vicksburg after failing to pass Fort Pemberton, north of Vicksburg.
(HN, 3/11/99)
1863 Mar 11, A Lithuanian ruling group replaced a committee for the lead in an uprising.
(LHC,3/11/03)
1863 Mar 12, President Jefferson Davis delivered his State of the Confederacy address.
(HN, 3/12/98)
1863 Mar 14, Asbury Harpending (24) of Kentucky, Ridgely Greathouse of Kentucky and Alfred Rubery of Britain set sail from San Francisco with 20 fighting men aboard the J.M. Chapman on an expedition to intercept outbound Panama steamers loaded with gold and silver and send the money to the Confederacy. They were quickly intercepted, taken to Alcatraz, and found guilty of high treason. Harpending was granted amnesty after four months in jail.
(SFC, 3/15/14, p.D2)
1863 Mar 17, The Battle of Kelly's Ford, Va., was fought.
(http://americancivilwar.com/statepic/va/va029.html)
1863 Mar 18, Confederate women rioted in Salisbury, N.C. to protest the lack of flour and salt in the South.
(HN, 3/18/00)
1863 Mar 20, Battle of Pensacola, Florida- evacuated by Federals.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1863 Mar 25, US Sec. of War Edward Stanton awarded Corp. William Pittenger of the 2nd Ohio Regiment and 5 other Union soldiers the first US Medals of Honor. Pittenger had been a member of Andrews Raiders who stole the locomotive “General" in Georgia on April 12, 1862. Civilian spy James Andrews and 7 other were hanged in 1862 following a Confederate court martial.
(ON, 8/08, p.12)
1863 Mar 25, There was a skirmish at Brentwood, Tennessee.
(MC, 3/25/02)
1863 Mar 26, Samuel and Florence Baker departed Gondokoro (southern Sudan) to find a lake called Luta N’Zige, through which flowed a branch of the Nile.
(ON, 10/01, p.9)
1863 Mar 26, Henry Royce, founder (Rolls-Royce Limited in 1884), was born. [see Mar 27]
(SS, 3/26/02)
1863 Mar 26, Voters in West Virginia approved the gradual emancipation of slaves.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1863 Mar 27, Sir Henry Royce, Rolls Royce founder, was born. [see Mar 26]
(HN, 3/27/98)
1863 Mar 27, Confederate Pres. Jefferson Davis called for this to be a day of fasting and prayer.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1863 Mar 31, Battle of Grand Gulf, MS & Dinwiddie Court House, VA.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1863 Apr 1, First wartime conscription law went into effect in the U.S.
(HN, 4/1/98)
1863 Apr 2, In Richmond, Va., a large crowd of hungry women from one of Richmond's working-class neighborhoods demanded bread from Governor John Letcher. When the governor did not respond favorably to the rioters' demands, the women marched down Main Street, shouting "Bread" as they made their way to the commissary, where they smashed store windows and grabbed food and anything else they could get their hands on. Not until the mob faced President Davis and his troops did the rampage end. Varina Howell Davis wrote an account of the riots after her husbands death in 1889.
(HNQ, 5/8/02)(AH, 6/02, p.24)
1863 Apr 7, Battle of Charleston, SC. The Federal fleet attack on Fort Sumter failed.
(MC, 4/7/02)
1863 Apr 10, Rebel Gen. Earl Van Dorn attacked at Franklin, Tenn.
(MC, 4/10/02)
1863 Apr 11, Battle of Suffolk, VA (Norfleet House).
(MC, 4/11/02)
1863 Apr 12-14, Gunboat battle at Bayou Teche, Louisiana.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1863 Apr 13, Battle of Irish Bend, LA (Ft. Bisland). (MC, 4/13/02)
1863 Apr 13, Hospital for Ruptured and Crippled in NY became the 1st orthopedic hospital.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1863 Apr 14, William Bullock patented a continuous-roll printing press.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1863 Apr 24, The Lieber code, also known as Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field, General Order № 100, was signed by Pres. Abraham Lincoln. It was named after the German-American jurist and political philosopher Francis Lieber and dictated how soldiers should conduct themselves in war time. It set a new norm of respect for private property.
(Econ, 4/10/10, p.64)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lieber_Code)
1863 Apr 24, California’s “Act to Provide for Improvement and Protection of Wharves, Docks, and Waterfront in the City and Harbor of San Francisco" was signed by Gov. Leland Stanford. It established the Board of State Harbor Commissioners, an agency with the sole purpose of running the port of San Francisco.
(SSFC, 4/28/13, p.A2)(http://sfheritage.org/03StateHarbor.pdf)
1863 Apr 24, Skirmish at Okolona, Birmingham, Mississippi (Grierson's Raid).
(MC, 4/24/02)
1863 Apr 27, Battle of Streight's raid: Tuscumbia to Cedar Bluff, AL.
(MC, 4/27/02)
1863 Apr 27, The Army of the Potomac began marching on Chancellorsville.
(HN, 4/27/98)
1863 Apr 29, William Randolph Hearst (d.1951), American newspaper publisher, was born. He helped launch the Spanish-American War. "Any man who has the brains to think and the nerve to act for the benefit of the people of the country is considered a radical by those who are content with stagnation and willing to endure disaster." In 1998 Ben Proctor authored "William Randolph Hearst – The Early Years, 1863-1910."
(HN, 4/29/99)(SFEM, 12/12/98, p.8)(AP, 5/1/99)
1863 Apr 29, Battle of Chancellorsville, VA., (Fredericksburg, Wilderness Tavern). [see May 1]
(MC, 4/29/02)
1863 May 1, Confederate congress passed a resolution to kill black Union soldiers.
(HN, 5/1/98)
1863 May 1, Confederate "National Flag" replaced "Stars & Bars."
(MC, 5/1/02)
1863 May 1, The beginning of the Battle of Chancellorsville, Va., in the East and the Battle Port Gibson in the west. The new Union commander, ‘Fighting Joe’ Hooker, planned to encircle Robert E. Lee at the Virginia crossroads hamlet of Chancellorsville.
(HN, 5/1/98)
1863 May 2, The Confederates smashed Hooker's flank and won a smashing victory at Chancellorsville, Virginia. Confederate Gen’l. Stonewall Jackson was shot by friendly fire as he returned to his lines; he died eight days later. Captain J. Keith Boswell, an officer with Jackson, was also shot and killed.
(HT, 3/97, p.48)(AP, 5/2/99)(HN, 5/2/99)
1863 May 3, Stonewall Jackson’s arm was amputated and buried. Jackson told his medical director, Dr. Hunter McGuire, "If the enemy does come, I am not afraid of them; I have always been kind to their wounded, and I am sure they will be kind to me." His words followed an order from Robert E. Lee to move Jackson to Guiney's Station, fearing that nearby Federal troops might capture him. Following perhaps his greatest performance, leading a brilliant flanking maneuver against Union Major General Joseph Hooker at Chancellorsville, he was mistakenly shot by his own troops while scouting ahead of their lines after dark. Jackson sustained severe wounds to the left arm and minor wounds to the right hand that later led to his death.
(HT, 3/97, p.52)(HNQ, 3/11/02)
1863 May 3, In Virginia the Battle of Chancellorsville raged for a second day, as Confederate General Robert E. Lee parried Union General Joseph T. Hooker's thrusts. [see May 1-2]
(HN, 5/3/00)
1863 May 4, Battle of Chancellorsville ended when the Union Army retreated.
(HN, 5/4/98)
1863 May 4, War correspondents Richard T. Colburn, Junius H. Brown and Albert Dean Richardson were captured enroute to Grant’s headquarters by a Confederate patrol near Vicksburg, Miss. Colburn was soon released but Brown and Richardson were sent to Libby Prison in Richmond, Va., and later to Salisbury Prison in North Carolina. They managed to escape in Dec 1864 and arrived in Knoxville, Tenn., on Jan 13, 1865.
(ON, 4/03, p.12)
1863 May 5, Battle of Tupelo, MS.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1863 May 10, Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson (39) died 8 days after being shot by friendly fire at Chancellorsville, Virginia. He had been a professor at the Virginia Military Institute. Many historians believe that he was the greatest commander of the Civil War. Stonewall Jackson has three graves. Jackson‘s left arm, amputated after it was shot twice during the Battle of Chancellorsville, has its own grave near Chancellorsville, Virginia. Lexington, Virginia, where he had lived with his wife, is the site of his original resting place and the nearby monument where his remains were later moved. James I. Robertson published a biography of Jackson in 1997: "Stonewall Jackson: The Man, the Soldier, the Legend."
(SFC, 7/4/96, p.D8)(HT, 3/97, p.48)(HNQ, 2/22/01)
1863 May 12, With a victory at the Battle of Raymond, Mississippi, Grant closed in on Vicksburg.
(SC, internet, 5/12/97)(HN, 5/12/99)
1863 May 13, The 54th Massachusetts was mustered in and was the first black regiment recruited in the North; it suffered 109 battle deaths in the war.
(Smith., 4/95, p.14)
1863 May 14, Union General Nathaniel Banks took his army out of Alexandria, Louisiana, and headed towards Port Hudson along the Mississippi River. The fort was considered the second most important strategic location on the river, after Vicksburg.
(HN, 5/14/99)
1863 May 14, Battle of Jackson, MS.
(MC, 5/14/02)
1863 May 16, At the Battle of Champion's Hill, in Mississippi, the bloodiest action of the Vicksburg Campaign, Union General Ulysses S. Grant repulsed the Confederates, driving them into Vicksburg.
(HN, 5/16/99)
1863 May 17, Union General Ulysses Grant continued his push towards Vicksburg at the Battle of the Big Black River Bridge in Mississippi.
(HN, 5/17/99)
1863 May 18, Siege of Vicksburg, MS.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1863 May 19, Union General Ulysses S. Grant's first attack on Vicksburg, Miss., was repulsed.
(HN, 5/19/99)
1863 May 21, The siege on Port Hudson, Louisiana, began.
(HN, 5/21/98)
1863 May 22, The US War Dept. established the Bureau of Colored Troops.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1863 May 22, U.S. Grant’s second attack on Vicksburg, Miss., failed and a siege began.
(HN, 5/22/98)
1863 May 24, Bushwackers led by Captain William Marchbanks attacked a Federal militia party in Nevada, Missouri.
(HN, 5/24/99)
1863 May 25, Federal authorities in Tennessee turned over former Ohio congressman Clement L. Vallandigham to the Confederates. President Abraham Lincoln had changed his sentence to banishment from the United States after his conviction of expressing alleged pro-Confederate sentiments.
(HN, 5/25/99)
1863 May 27, Siege of Port Hudson, LA. [see May 21]
(MC, 5/27/02)
1863 May 28, The 54th Massachusetts, the first black regiment from the North, left Boston headed for Hilton Head, South Carolina, to fight in the Civil War.
(AP, 5/28/97)(HN, 5/28/99)
1863 Jun 2, Felix Weingartner, conductor (Zara, Dalmatia), was born in Germany.
(SC, 6/2/02)
1863 Jun 3, Gen. Lee, with 75,000 Confederates, launched a second invasion of the North. On June 3rd, Lee led his troops into Maryland and then Pennsylvania, to meet the Army of the Potomac again, this time around a small town called Gettysburg.
(HNQ, 9/22/00)
1863 Jun 4, David Batchelder and a group of 27 armed men sailed from San Francisco to the Farallon Islands in 3 boats to challenge the Egg Co. for bird eggs. One man was killed and another died of wounds a few days later. In 1995 Peter White authored “The Farallon Islands: Sentinels of the Golden Gate."
(SFC, 5/25/13, p.C3)
1863 Jun 5, CSS Alabama captured the Talisman in the Mid-Atlantic.
(HN, 6/5/98)
1863 Jun 5, Battle of Franklin's Crossing, VA (Deep Run).
(MC, 6/5/02)
1863 Jun 7, Mexico City was captured by French troops.
(HN, 6/7/98)
1863 Jun 8, Residents of Vicksburg, Miss., fled into caves as Grant’s army began shelling the town.
(HN, 6/8/98)
1863 Jun 9, At the Battle of Brandy Station in Virginia, Union and Confederate cavalries clashed. This was the largest cavalry battle in the Civil War.
(HN, 6/9/01)
1863 Jun 10, At the Battle of Brice's Crossroads in Mississippi, Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest with 3,500 troops defeated the Union troops of 8,000.
(HN, 6/10/98)(MC, 6/10/02)
1863 Jun 13, Confederate forces on their way to Gettysburg clashed with Union troops at the Second Battle of Winchester, Virginia.
(HN, 6/13/98)
1863 Jun 15, The 2nd battle at Winchester, Va., ended in Federal defeat with 1350 casualties.
(MC, 6/15/02)
1863 Jun 17, On the way to Gettysburg, Union and Confederate forces skirmished at Point of Rocks, Maryland.
(HN, 6/17/98)
1863 Jun 17, Battle of Aldie: Confederates failed to drive back Union in Virginia.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1863 Jun 17, Travelers Insurance Co. of Hartford, the 1st accident insurer, was chartered.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1863 Jun 18, After repeated acts of insubordination, General John McClernand was relieved by General Ulysses S. Grant during the siege of Vicksburg.
(HN, 6/18/98)
1863 Jun 19, Battle at Middleburg Virginia (100+ casualties).
(DTnet, 6/19/97)
1863 Jun 20, West Virginia became the 35th state.
(AP, 6/20/97)
1863 Jun 21, In the second day of fighting, Confederate cavalry failed to dislodge a Union force at the Battle of LaFourche Crossing in Louisiana.
(HN, 6/21/00)
1863 Jun 23, Confederate forces overwhelmed a Union garrison at the Battle of Brasher City in Louisiana.
(HN, 6/23/99)
1863 Jun 24, Planning an invasion of Pennsylvania, Lee's army crossed the Potomac.
(MC, 6/24/02)
1863 Jun 25, Pres. Lincoln chose US General George Meade to replace General Hooker, hoping he would be more aggressive. [see Jun 28]
(MC, 6/25/02)
1863 Jun 26, Jubal Early and his Confederate forces moved into Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
(HN, 6/26/98)
1863 Jun 27, There was a skirmish at Fairfax Courthouse in Virginia.
(MC, 6/27/02)
1863 Jun 28, General Meade replaced General Hooker three days before the Battle of Gettysburg. General George Gordon Meade said "Well, I’ve been tried and condemned without a hearing, and I suppose I shall have to go to execution," in response to his appointment as head of the Union Army of the Potomac during the Civil War. Within a week his army won the Battle of Gettysburg, assuring Meade of a record of success superior to all of his predecessors.
(HN, 6/28/98)(HNQ, 2/25/02)
1863 Jun 28, Officers of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia’s Second Corps were looking at Harrisburg through field glasses from across the Susquehanna River just a day or two before a developing battle at Gettysburg called them away. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the Keystone State’s capital was a major hub for rail traffic from every direction. Consequently, it was also the point through which the hard, slow-burning coal used by ships, locomotives, and furnaces traveled on its way from the mines of north central Pennsylvania to military and industrial customers. Philadelphia, an important ocean port east of Harrisburg and connected to it by rail, would have been virtually defenseless against an attack from its landward side. If Lee had taken Harrisburg, he would also have been perfectly positioned to threaten Washington, D.C., from the north.
(HNQ, 3/5/02)
1863 Jun 29, Battle at Westminster, Maryland: Federal assault.
(MC, 6/29/02)
1863 Jun 29, George A. Custer (23) was appointed Union Brevet Brig-general.
(MC, 6/29/02)
1863 Jun 29, Lee ordered his forces to concentrate near Gettysburg, PN.
(MC, 6/29/02)
1863 Jun 30, Union and Confederate cavalries clashed at Hanover, Pennsylvania.
(HN, 6/30/98)
1863 Jul 1, The opening shot at the Battle of Gettysburg was at 7:30 a.m. In the first day's fighting at Gettysburg, Federal forces retreated through the town and dug in at Cemetery Ridge and Cemetery Hill. Gen. Robert E. Lee's ordered Lt. Gen. Richard Ewell, "Take the hill if practicable, but do not bring on a general engagement..." Books on the campaign included "The Gettysburg Campaign, A Study in Command," by Edwin B. Coddington and "Gettysburg: Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill," by Harry W. Pfanz. The novel "While Gods and Generals" by Jeff Shaara, son of Michael Shaara, describes the years leading up to the battle.
(HFA, '96, p.32)(AP, 7/1/97)(SFEC, 6/21/98, p.D5)(HN, 7/1/98)
1863 Jul 1, John Fulton Reynolds (42), Union general, died in battle at Gettysburg.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1863 Jul 1, The Dutch abolished slavery in Suriname. The Dutch were among the last Europeans to abolish slavery.
(AP, 7/2/03)
1863 Jul 2, Mrs. Lincoln was thrown from her carriage and spent weeks recovering at the Anderson Cottage, Washington DC. The seat assembly may have been sabotaged.
(SFC, 5/20/02, p.F10)
1863 Jul 2, The Union left flank held at Little Round Top during 2nd day of the Battle of Gettysburg. Union Gen. Daniel Sickles was severely wounded and had his leg amputated. In 2002 Thomas Keneally authored "American Scoundrel: The Life of the Notorious Civil War General Dan Sickles."
(WSJ, 3/29/02, p.W10)(SFC, 4/17/02, p.D1)(AH, 2/05, p.49)
1863 Jul 3, The last rebel assault was repulsed at the Battle of Gettysburg at 4 p.m. The Civil War’s Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania ended after three days in a major victory for the North as Confederate troops retreated. The last Confederate assault at Gettysburg was Pickett’s Charge against the center of the Union line that left some 7,000 of 13,000 [15,000] Confederate troops dead. Lt. Gen. James Longstreet gave Maj. Gen. George Pickett the assent. General Lee took responsibility. The Union and Confederate armies suffered an estimated 50-51 thousand casualties in the battle. It was the bloodiest battle the country had yet seen. Upon whom the responsibility for the South's failure at Gettysburg rests has been widely debated, but five months after the epic battle, Confederate General Robert E. Lee admitted, "I thought my men were invincible." The fighting in the small Pennsylvania town marked a pivotal point in the Union's ascent to victory and helped decide the outcome of the Civil War. In 1974 Michael Shaara published "The Killer Angels," a novel about the 3-day battle.
(SFC, 7/7/96, T6)(SFC,2/17/97, p.A3)(AP, 7/3/97)(SFEC, 6/21/98, p.D5)(HN, 7/3/98)(WSJ, 9/11/98, p.W10)(HNPD, 7/6/99)
1863 Jul 3, Battle of Donaldsonville, LA.
(MC, 7/3/02)
1863 Jul 4, Boise, Idaho, was founded.
(Maggio, 98)
1863 Jul 4, General U.S. Grant's Union army captured the Confederate town of Vicksburg after a long siege during the Civil War.
(HN, 7/4/98)(IB, Internet, 12/7/98)
1863 Jul 4, General Lee’s army limped toward Virginia after defeat at Gettysburg. 28,063 of 75,000 confederate soldiers were lost. General Meade’s army suffered 23,049 soldiers killed, wounded and missing.
(SFC, 7/7/96, T6)
1863 Jul 4, Paul Joseph Revere, US grandson of Paul Revere, Union brig-gen, died from wounds at Gettysburg.
(MC, 7/4/02)
1863 Jul 4, Failed Confederate assault on Helena, Arkansas, left 640 casualties.
(Maggio, 98)
1863 Jul 4, Skirmish at Smithburg, TN.
(Maggio, 98)
1863 Jul 5, Federal troops occupied Vicksburg, Mississippi, and distributed supplies to the citizens. The battles of Jackson and Birdsong Ferry, were fought in Mississippi.
(HN, 7/5/98)(MC, 7/5/02)
1863 Jul 6, Vincent Strong (b.1837), US Union brig-general, died from wounds at Gettysburg.
(MC, 6/17/02)(MC, 7/6/02)
1863 Jul 7, Confederate General Robert E. Lee, in Hagerstown, Maryland, reported his defeat at Gettysburg to President Jefferson Davis.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1863 Jul 7, The 1st military draft was called by the US. It allowed exemptions for $100.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1863 Jul 7, Orders barring Jews from serving under US Grant were revoked.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1863 Jul 8, Discouraged by the surrender of Vicksburg, Mississippi, Confederates in Port Hudson, Louisiana, surrendered to Union forces.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1863 Jul 10, Clement Clarke Moore (83), (alleged author of "'Twas the Night Before Xmas"), died in NYC.
(MC, 7/10/02)
1863 Jul 10-Jul 16, In the Battle of Jackson, MS, federals captured Jackson with 1000 casualties vs. 1339 for the Confederates.
(MC, 7/10/02)
1863 Jul 11, The Battle of Fort Wager began as Union forces assaulted the Confederate battery on Morris Island at the southern approach to Charleston Harbor.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assault_on_the_Battery_Wagner)
1863 Jul 13, Rioting against the Civil War military draft erupted in New York City; about 1,000 people died over three days. Antiabolitionist Irish longshoremen rampaged against blacks in the deadly Draft Riots in New York City in response to Pres. Lincoln’s announcement of military conscription. Mobs lynched a black man and torched the Colored Orphan Asylum. The 2003 film "Gangs of New York" focused on this event. In 2006 Barnet Schecter authored “The Devil’s Own Work," an account of the riots.
(WSJ, 3/19/96, p.A-12)(AP, 7/13/97)(HN, 7/13/98)(WSJ, 8/2100, p.A14)(WSJ, 1/18/06, p.D13)
1863 Jul 13-15, Battle of Tupelo, MS (Harrisburg).
(MC, 7/13/02)
1863 Jul 14, Jews of Holstein Germany were granted equality.
(MC, 7/14/02)
1863 Jul 15, Confederate raider Bill Anderson and his Bushwackers attacked Huntsville, Missouri, stealing $45,000 from the local bank.
(HN, 7/15/99)
1863 Jul 18, A 2nd assault in the Battle of Fort Wagner, SC, left US1500 and CS174 casualties. Union troops of the Massachusetts 54th Infantry assaulted Battery Wagner on Morris Island in the harbor at Charleston, SC. The ultimately unsuccessful attack, the 1st major engagement by a unit of freed black soldiers, was later celebrated in the 1989 film “Glory."
(www.awod.com/cwchas/wagner.html)(LP, Spring 2006, p.58)
1863 Jul 18, William Dorsey Pender (29), US Confederate gen-maj, died of injuries.
(MC, 7/18/02)
1863 Jul 23, Bill Anderson and his Confederate Bushwackers gutted the railway station at Renick, Missouri.
(HN, 7/23/99)
1863 Jul 24, Battle at Battle Mountain, Virginia.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1863 Jul 26, In the Battle of Salineville, Ohio, John Hunt Morgan and 364 troops surrendered. Confederate Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan and his cavalrymen were captured during their daring raid into Ohio. Conditions for Confederate soldiers housed in the Ohio State Penitentiary in Columbus improved after General Morgan sent a written complaint to the Buckeye State’s governor, David Todd. The Confederates were placed in the dark, dank stone prison, where they were subject to harsh punishment and forced to live on bread and water. Todd visited the prison after receiving Morgan’s letter, and soon afterward reforms were instituted to improve living conditions. Morgan did not stay to savor the improvements, though. In November 1863, he and six other Confederate officers escaped.
(HNQ, 9/20/01)(MC, 7/26/02)
1863 Jul 26, Samuel Houston (70), 1st Pres. of Republic of Texas (1836-38, 41-44), died.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1863 Jul 27, William Lowndes Yancey (b.1814), former Alabama state senator, and advocate of states’ rights and slavery, died at his home near in Montgomery, Alabama. In 2006 Eric H. Walther authored “William Lowndes Yancey and the Coming of the Civil War."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Lowndes_Yancey)
1863 Jul 28, Confederate John Mosby began a series of attacks against General Meade's Army of the Potomac as it tried to pursue General Robert E. Lee in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. Confederate Colonel John S. Mosby was known as "The Gray Ghost." The rather ordinary looking Mosby led his Partisan Rangers in guerilla warfare operations that continually confounded Union commanders in the Piedmont region of Virginia. Learn more about Mosby‘s Confederacy in Faquier and Loudoun counties.
(HN, 7/28/98)(HNQ, 7/15/00)
1863 Jul 30, Henry Ford (d.1947), founder of the Ford Motor Company and developer of the Model T, was born in Dearborn Township, Mich. He led American war production with the gigantic facility at Willow Run. "You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do."
(AP, 8/16/97)(AP, 7/30/98)(HN, 7/30/98)
1863 Jul 30, Pres. Lincoln issued his "eye-for-eye" order to shoot a rebel prisoner for every black prisoner shot.
(MC, 7/30/02)
1863 Jul 30, George Crockett Strong (29), US Union Gen-Maj, died of injuries.
(MC, 7/30/02)
1863 Jul, The Point Lookout prison camp was begun under Gen'l. Gilman Marston with 200 confederate soldiers in St. Mary’s County, 86 miles from Washington DC. More than 4,000 Confederate soldiers perished in 18 months due to privation and disease.
(WSJ, 3/26/96, p.A-19)
1863 Jul, The European public first learned of Angkor in Cambodia from the posthumously published journal of French naturalist Henri Mouhot.
(SFEC, 7/26/98, p.T6)
1863 Aug 1, Battle of Little Rock, AK, and start of the Chattanooga campaign.
(MC, 8/1/02)
1863 Aug 1, Cavalry action near Brandy Station marked the end of Gettysburg Campaign.
(MC, 8/1/02)
1863 Aug 3, Governor Seymour asked Pres. Lincoln to suspend the draft in NY.
(SC, 8/3/02)
1863 Aug 3, The Saratoga Race Course opened in Saratoga Springs, NY.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saratoga_Race_Course)
1863 Aug 6, The CSS Alabama captured the Federal ship Sea Bride near the Cape of Good Hope.
(HN, 8/6/98)
1863 Aug 8, Confederate President Jefferson Davis refused General Robert E. Lee’s resignation.
(HN, 8/8/98)
1863 Aug 12, 1st cargo of lumber left Burrard Inlet in the Vancouver, BC area.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1863 Aug 14, Ernest L. Thayer, author of the poem "Casey at the Bat," was born.
(HN, 8/14/98)
1863 Aug 16, Chickamauga campaign took place in GA. Union General William S. Rosecrans moved his army south from Tullahoma, Tennessee to attack Confederate forces in Chattanooga.
(HN, 8/16/99)(MC, 8/16/02)
1863 Aug 17, Federal batteries and ships bombarded South Carolina’s Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor during the Civil War, but the Confederates managed to hold on despite several days of pounding.
(HN, 8/17/98)(AP, 8/17/08)
1863 Aug 21, William Clarke Quantrill (d.1865), a pro-Confederate guerrilla fighter during the American Civil War, attacked Lawrence, Kansas, with a force estimated at anywhere from 200 to 450 raiders. Though Senator Lane, a prime target of the raid, managed to escape through a cornfield in his nightshirt, the bushwhackers killed an estimated 150-200 men and boys, dragging many from their homes to kill them before their families. When Quantrill rode out at 9 a.m., most of Lawrence's buildings had been burned, including all but two businesses; his raiders looted indiscriminately and also robbed the town's bank. The raid would become notorious in the North as one of the most vicious atrocities of the Civil War.
(HN, 8/21/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Quantrill)
1863 Aug 23, Union batteries ceased their first bombardment of Fort Sumter, leaving it a mass of rubble but still unconquered by the Northern besiegers.
(HN, 8/23/00)
1863 Aug 26, Battle of Rocky Gap, WV, (White Sulphur Springs).
(MC, 8/26/02)
1863 Sep 1, RR and ferry connections between SF and Oakland were inaugurated. Southern Pacific had begun running steam trains in the East Bay this year.
(SC, 9/1/02)(SFC, 3/22/14, p.D2)
1863 Sep 1, 6th Ohio Cavalry ambush at Barbees Crossroads, Virginia.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1863 Sep 6, After 59 day siege, confederates evacuated Ft Wagner, SC.
(MC, 9/6/01)
1863 Sep 8, Federal troops reconquered the Cumberland Gap, Tennessee.
(MC, 9/8/01)
1863 Sep 8, Battle of Telford's Depot, Ten.
(MC, 9/8/01)
1863 Sep 8, Confederate Lieutenant Dick Dowling thwarted a Union naval landing at Sabine Pass, northeast of Galveston, Texas.
(HN, 9/8/98)
1863 Sep 9, The Union Army of the Cumberland passed through Chattanooga as they chased after the retreating Confederates following the Battle of Cumberland Gap.
(HN, 9/9/98)(MC, 9/9/01)
1863 Sep 13, The Loudoun County Rangers routed a company of Confederate cavalry at Catoctin Mountain in Virginia.
(HN, 9/13/99)
1863 Sep 13, Franz von Hipper, German naval commander at the Battle of Jutland in World War I, was born.
(HN, 9/13/98)
1863 Sep 17, The Robinson family under widow Eliza Sinclair arrived in Honolulu. They had moved to British Columbia from New Zealand in June, but were advised to relocate to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii).
(www.clansinclairusa.org/articles/march2001/elizabeth.php)
1863 Sep 18, Union cavalry troops clashed with a group of Confederates at Chickamauga Creek.
(HN, 9/18/99)
1863 Sep 19, In Georgia, the two-day Battle of Chickamauga began as Union troops under George Thomas clashed with Confederates under Nathan Bedford Forrest.
(HN, 9/19/98)
1863 Sep 20, Union troops under George Thomas prevented the Union defeat at Chickamauga from becoming a rout, earning him the nickname "the Rock of Chickamauga." Thomas stayed and fought even after his commander, William Rosecrans, retreated to Chattanooga. President Abraham Lincoln later appointed Thomas as Rosecrans‘ successor. Armed with their new, lethal seven-shot Spencer rifles, Wilder’s Lightning Brigade was all that stood between the Union Army and the looming disaster at Chickamauga Creek. The bloody battle of Chickamauga was the costliest two-day battle of the entire war.
(HN, 9/20/98)(HN, 11/4/98)(HNQ, 9/29/00)
1863 Sep 20, Jakob Grimm, writer, died at 78.
(MC, 9/20/01)
1863 Sep 21, Union troops under Major Gen’l. William S. Rosecrans defeated at Chickamauga sought refuge in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which was then besieged by Confederate troops. There they lost 10,000 horses and mules to starvation.
(HT, 4/97, p.52)(HN, 9/21/98)
1863 Sep 23, Mary Church Terrell, educator, political activist, and first president of the National Association of Colored Women, was born in Memphis, Tennessee. An 1884 graduate of Oberlin College, America's first college to admit women and amongst the first to admit students of all races, Terrell was one of the first American women of African descent to graduate from college. She earned her master's degree from Oberlin in 1888.
(http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/today.html)
1863 Sep 23, The Confederate siege of Chattanooga began.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1863 Sep 26, James M. Wells, a Union cavalry lieutenant from Michigan, was captured by Confederate cavalry and sent to Libby Prison in Richmond, Va.
(ON, 3/01, p.7)
1863 Sep 27, Jo Shelby's cavalry in action at Moffat's Station, Arkansas.
(MC, 9/27/01)
1863 Sep 30, Reinhard von Scheer, German admiral who commanded the German fleet at the Battle of Jutland, was born.
(HN, 9/30/98)
1863 Sep 30, The George Bizet (1838-1875) opera "Les Pecheurs de Perles" (Pearl Fishers) premiered in Paris.
(www.operaphilly.com/03-04/bizet-bio.shtml)
1863 Oct 1, 5 Russian warships were welcomed in NYC.
(MC, 10/1/01)
1863 Oct 3, President Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November, Thanksgiving Day. Credit for establishing Thanksgiving as a national holiday is usually given to Sarah J. Hale, editor and founder of the Ladies' Magazine in Boston. Her editorials in the magazine and letters to President Lincoln urging the formal establishment of a national holiday of Thanksgiving resulted in Lincoln's proclamation, which designated the last Thursday of November as Thanksgiving Day. Later presidents followed this example, with the exception of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who in 1939 proclaimed Thanksgiving Day a week earlier--on the fourth, not the last, Thursday of November--in effort to encourage more holiday shopping. In 1941 Congress adopted a joint resolution, permanently setting the date of Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November.
(AP, 10/3/97)(HN, 11/26/98)(HNPD, 11/26/98)(HN, 11/25/99)
1863 Oct 5, Confederate sub David damaged the Union ship Ironsides.
(MC, 10/5/01)
1863 Oct 9, Confederate cavalry raiders returned to Chattanooga having attacked Union General William Rosecrans’ supply and communication lines all around east Tennessee.
(HN, 10/9/98)
1863 Oct 9, Battle of Brady Station, Va. (Culpeper Court House, Bristoe Station).
(MC, 10/9/01)
1863 Oct 10, The first telegraph line to Denver was completed.
(HN, 10/10/98)
1863 Oct 10, The Skirmish at Blue Springs, Tennessee, resulted in 166 casualties.
(MC, 10/10/01)
1863 Oct 11, Skirmish at Rheatown, Henderson's Mill, Tennessee.
(MC, 10/11/01)
1863 Oct 15, For the second time, the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley sank during a practice dive in Charleston Harbor, S.C, this time drowning its inventor along with seven crew members. The 40-foot Hunley sank in August with five sailors who had volunteered to test it.
(Historynet, 10/15/98)(SFC, 3/12/99, p.A3)
1863 Oct 16, Grant was given command of Union forces in West. [see Oct 17]
(MC, 10/16/01)
1863 Oct 17, General Ulysses S. Grant was named overall Union Commander of the West. [see Oct 16]
(HN, 10/17/98)
1863 Oct 18, Battle of Charlestown in WV.
(MC, 10/18/01)
1863 Oct 19, Gen’l. Grant ordered Major Gen’l. George Thomas to replace Major Gen’l. Rosecrans and Major Gen’l. Joseph Hooker arrived at Chattanooga with 20,000 fresh Federals from Virginia.
(HT, 4/97, p.56)
1863 Oct 23, Gen’l. Grant arrived at Chattanooga. [see Oct 24]
(HT, 4/97, p.56)
1863 Oct 24, General Ulysses S. Grant arrived in Chattanooga, Tennessee to find the Union Army there starving. [see Oct 23]
(HN, 10/24/98)
1863 Oct 28-29, In a rare night attack, Confederates under Gen. James Longstreet attacked a Federal force near Chattanooga in the Battle of Wauhatchie, Tennessee. Longstreet hoped to cut the Federal supply line, the “cracker line," but failed. The principal commanders were: Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker [US] and Brig. Gen. Micah Jenkins [CS]. Estimated causalities: 828 total (US 420; CS 408).
(HN, 10/28/98)(http://www2.cr.nps.gov/abpp/battles/tn021.htm)
1863 Oct, 7,000 soldiers were cramped into Point Lookout Union prison for Confederate soldiers.
(WSJ, 3/26/96, p.A-19)
1863 Nov 4, From the main Confederate Army at Chattanooga, Tenn., Lt. Gen. James Longstreet's troops were sent northeast to besiege Knoxville.
(HN, 11/4/98)
1863 Nov 6, A Union force surrounded and scattered defending Confederates at the Battle of Droop Mountain, in West Virginia.
(HN, 11/6/99)
1863 Nov 6, The Battle of Rogersville took place at Big Creek in Hawkins County, Tennessee. Union troops, under the command of Col. Israel Garrard, faced Confederates under the overall command of Brig. Gen. William E. Jones. Confederates won and sent prisoners sent to Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia.
(http://johnsettles.com/roger.htm)
1863 Nov 7, The Battle of Rappahannock Station, Va., was fought.
(http://www2.cr.nps.gov/abpp/battles/va043.htm)
1863 Nov 12, Confederate General James Longstreet arrived at Loudon, Tennessee to assist the attack on Union General Ambrose Burnside’s troops at Knoxville.
(HN, 11/12/98)
1863 Nov 14, Leo H.A. Baekeland (d.1944), Belgian-born US chemist (bakelite), was born in Ghent.
(www.zephyrus.co.uk/galen.html)
1863 Nov 14, Gen Nathan Bedford Forrest was assigned to command of West Tennessee.
(MC, 11/14/01)
1863 Nov 14, There was a skirmish at Danville, Mississippi.
(MC, 11/14/01)
1863 cNov 15, Major Gen’l. William Tecumseh Sherman arrived at Chattanooga from Mississippi with 16,000 reinforcements.
(HT, 4/97, p.56)
1863 Nov 16, At the Battle of Campbell's Station, Ten., there were 492 causalities.
(MC, 11/16/01)
1863 Nov 17, Lincoln began the 1st draft of his Gettysburg Address.
(MC, 11/17/01)
1863 Nov 17-Dec 4th, Battle of Knoxville, Ten.
(MC, 11/17/01)
1863 Nov 19, President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address as he dedicated a national cemetery at the site of the Civil War battlefield in Pennsylvania. Lincoln had been asked to deliver a few "appropriate remarks" to the crowd at the dedication of the National Cemetery at the site of the Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. His address was almost ignored in the wake of the lengthy oration by main speaker Edwin Everett, the former governor of Massachusetts. In fact, Lincoln's speech was over before many in the crowd were even aware that he was speaking. Lincoln concluded his speech with this vow: "We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
(http://condor.stcloudstate.edu/~brixr01/theTIMEMACHINE.html)(AP, 11/19/97)(ON, 8/07, p.1)
1863 Nov 23, At Chattanooga Gen’l. Thomas’ men drove the Confederates from Orchard Knob. Union forces won the Battle of Orchard Knob, Tenn. The Battle of Chattanooga, one of the most decisive battles of the American Civil War, also began in Tennessee.
(HN, 11/23/01)
1863 Nov 23, A patent was granted for a process of making color photographs.
(MC, 11/23/01)
1863 Nov 24, In the Battle Above the Clouds, Union Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker's forces took Lookout Mountain, near Chattanooga, Tenn. The battle for Lookout Mountain was fought in a layer of fog whose lower level began at the Cravens House, used as Rebel headquarters. Gen’l. Hooker later commissioned painter James Walker to render a picture of the battle for $20,000.
(HFA, ‘96, p.42)(HT, 4/97, p.56)(HN, 11/24/98)
1863 Nov 25, The Union ended the siege of Chattanooga, Tenn., with the Battle of Missionary Ridge, Tenn.
(HN, 11/25/98)
1863 Nov 26, The first of our modern annual Thanksgivings was held following the Oct 3 proclamation of Pres. Lincoln to assign the last Thursday in Nov for this purpose.
(HN, 11/26/98)(HNPD, 11/26/98)
1863 Nov 27, Battle of Payne's Farm, Va.
(MC, 11/27/01)
1863 Nov 29, The Battle of Fort Sanders, Knoxville, Tenn., ended in Confederate withdrawal. There were 8-900 causalities.
(HN, 11/29/98)(MC, 11/29/01)
1863 Nov, In Pennsylvania the Harrisburg Patriot and Union newspaper described Pres. Lincoln’s speech at Gettysburg as “silly remarks" that deserved a “veil of oblivion." In 2013 the Patriot-News of Harrisburg retracted the editorial penned by its predecessor.
(SFC, 11/15/13, p.A7)
1863 Dec 1, Oliver Herford, American humorist and poet, was born. He wrote "Cupid's Fair Weather Book" and "The Deb's Dictionary."
(HN, 12/1/99)
1863 Dec 1, Belle Boyd, a Confederate spy, was released from prison in Washington.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1863 Dec 2, Charles Ringling, one of the 7 Ringling brothers of circus fame, was born. Of the 7 Ringling brothers, five were involved in the founding of the famous Ringling Brothers Circus. The 5 Ringling brothers who founded the circus were Albert, Otto, Alfred, Charles and John. Two other Ringling brothers were never associated with the circus, which began as a wagon show in 1884. In 1907 they bought the Barnum & Bailey Circus and after 1918 called their circus the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows. John Ringling’s son, John Ringling North, sold the circus to interests outside of the family in 1967.
(HN, 12/2/00)(HNQ, 1/22/03)
1863 Dec 2, General Braxton Bragg turned over command of the Army of Tennessee to General William Hardee at Dalton, Ga.
(HN, 12/2/98)
1863 Dec 3, Confederate General Longstreet abandoned his siege at Knoxville, Ten., and moved his army east and north toward Greeneville. This withdrawal marked the end of the Fall Campaign in Tennessee.
(HN, 12/3/98)(MC, 12/3/01)
1863 Dec 4, Seven solid days of bombardment ended at Charleston, S.C. The Union fired some 1,307 rounds.
(HN, 12/4/99)
1863 Dec 6, The monitor Weehawken sank in the Charleston Harbor.
(HN, 12/6/98)
1863 Dec 7, Outlaw George Ives, an alleged member of an outlaw gang known as the "Innocents," robbed and then killed Nick Thiebalt in the Ruby Valley of what would become Montana.
(HN, 12/7/98)
1863 Dec 8, President Lincoln announced his plan for the Reconstruction of the South. President Lincoln offered amnesty for confederate deserters.
(AP, 12/8/97)(MC, 12/8/01)
1863 Dec 8, Averell’s cavalry destroyed railroads in the southwestern part of West Virginia.
(HN, 12/8/98)
1863 Dec 8, A Jesuit church in Chile caught fire and 2,500 died in a panic.
(MC, 12/8/01)
1863 Dec 9, Major General John G. Foster replaced Major General Ambrose E. Burnside as Commander of the Department of Ohio.
(HN, 12/9/98)
1863 Dec 11, Union gunboats Restless, Bloomer and Caroline entered St. Andrew’s Bay, Fla., and began bombardment of both Confederate Quarters and Saltworks.
(HN, 12/11/98)
1863 Dec 12, Edvard Munch (d.1944), Norwegian artist (The Scream), was born.
(WUD, 1994 p.941)(NH, 6/00, p.20)(HN, 12/12/00)
1863 Dec 12, Orders were given in Richmond that no more supplies from the Union should be received by Federal prisoners.
(HN, 12/12/98)
1863 Dec 14, The widow of Confederate General B.H. Helm was given amnesty by President Lincoln after she swore allegiance to the Union. Mrs. Helm was the half-sister of Mary Todd Lincoln.
(HN, 12/14/98)
1863 Dec 14, Longstreet attacked Union troops at Bean’s Station, Tenn.
(HN, 12/14/98)
1863 Dec 16, Confederate General Joseph Johnston took command of the Army of Tennessee, replacing Lt. General William Hardee.
(HN, 12/16/98)
1863 Albert Bierstadt created his painting "Rocky Mountains, Landers Peak."
(SSFC, 8/4/02, p.M2)
1863 Johan Barthold Jongkind created his painting " Port of Honfleur at Evening."
(WSJ, 12/3/03, p.D12)
1863 George Richmond, R.A., painted the portrait "Maharani ‘Chund Kowr’ alias Rani Jindan" in India.
(SFEM, 2/1/98, p.14)(SFC, 2/7/98, p.E1)
1863 Auguste Rodin began his sculpture masterpiece "Mask of the Man With the Broken Nose."
(WSJ, 4/1/97, p.A16)
1863 The Paris Salon des Refuses was a group show of artists rejected by the mavens of the official salon. The hit and scandal of the show was Edouard Manet’s "Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe" which depicted a happy foursome picnicking in the woods with the two women undressed. One of the women was Victorine Meurent, a professional model. Other refused artists included Cezanne, Pissarro, and other impressionists.
(WSJ, 6/14/95, p.A-14)(Econ, 1/26/13, p.76)
1863 George Frederic Watts painted "Choosing."
(WSJ, 2/19/97, p.A15)
1863 Charles Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll, published "Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland." [see Dodgson in 1832]
(WSJ, 11/9/95, p.A-20)
1863 T.H. Huxley published his exposition of Darwinism in his lectures to working men: "On Our Knowledge of the Causes of the Phenomena of Organic Nature."
(NH, 5/96, p.22)
1863 Jules Verne (1828-1905) authored his novel “Five Weeks in a Balloon." This was his first published book.
(WSJ, 9/18/07, p.D8)
1763 Voltaire authored his "Treatise on Tolerance." In 2015 it began climbing the French best seller list in the wake of attacks by French-born Islamic extremists.
(AP, 1/28/15)
1863 The first San Francisco Cliff House was built by real estate tycoon Charles Butler as a dining establishment for well-to-do families. The 160-acre site had been used as a potato farm by a man named chambers. It was purchased in 1881 by Adolph Sutro. The Cliff House burned down in 1894 and was rebuilt. It again burned down in 1907 and rebuilt in 1909.
(SFC, 1/7/97, p.B1)(SFC, 4/14/99, Z1 p.4)(SFC, 4/5/14, p.C1)
1863 The Sears-Ferris House was built in Carson City, Nev. It was the boyhood home of Gale Ferris (1859-1896), the inventor of the Ferris Wheel.
(SSFC, 11/19/06, p.F10)
1863 Ellen White of Maine, founder of the 7th Day Adventists, testified against tobacco, spirituous liquors, snuff, tea, coffee, flesh-meats, butter, spices, rich cakes, mince pies, large amounts of salt and all exciting substances used as articles of food.
(SFC, 9/29/00, p.W17)
1863 In Indianapolis the Crown Hill cemetery was established.
(SFEC,10/26/97, p.T6)
1863 Walker Rankin Sr. founded the 31,000 acre Quarter Circle U Rankin Ranch in the Tehachapi Mountains of Kern County, Ca.
(SFEC, 7/5/98, p.T6)
1863 The Mütter Museum was founded as part of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia was an educational service for practicing physicians.
(NW, 11/18/02, p.14)
1863 Fitz Hugh Ludlow, author of the 1857 book "The Hasheesh Eater," arrived in SF by the Overland Stagecoach. He rode with painter Albert Bierstadt who married Ludlow's wife in 1864. Ludlow wrote an account of his travels titled "The heart of the Continent." In 1999 Donald P. Dulchinos published "Pioneer of Inner Space: The Life of Fitz Hugh Ludlow, Hasheesh Eater."
(SFEC, 1/24/99, BR p.4)
1863 Abraham Lincoln sent 450 newly freed slaves to Haiti’s Ile-à-Vache to found a colony, though most gave up and returned home a year later.
(Reuters, 4/6/14)
1863 Treasury Sec. Hugh McCulloch lamented that America’s monetary system "is unfitted for a commercial country like ours."
(WSJ, 1/13/98, p.A1)
1863 The Treaty of Ruby Valley with the Western Shoshone Indians assured their ownership of property that later became a US nuclear test site. The treaty stated that the presence of US settlements will not negate Indian sovereignty.
(SFC, 7/12/97, p.E4)(SFEC, 8/29/99, Z1 p.7)
1863 The US government paid a group of Nez Perce Indians $265,000 for some 6 million acres in the area of Lewiston, Oregon.
(ON, 3/04, p.1)
1863 James Garfield was elected to Congress.
(HNQ, 8/3/02)
1863 Civil war ships, the Dot, the Charm and the Paul Jones, were scuttled on a tributary to the Big Muddy during the Confederate retreat from Vicksburg.
(NOHY, Weiner, 3/90, p.88)
1863 At the Battle of Chickamauga Creek, James B. Steedman seized his regiment’s colors and dramatically led his wavering volunteers through a withering barrage of Confederate fire. The Confederates won the battle, but Steedman emerged unscathed to become Toledo’s most famous Civil War hero.
(Smith., 4/1995, p.140)
1863 Pauline C. Fryer (1833-1893) toured the South getting information for the Union, when she was found out and ordered hung by Confederate General Braxton Bragg. The Union troops took the town before the sentence could be carried out. She then toured the North and wrote a book "Spy for the Cumberland" (1864). President Lincoln gave her the Honorary rank of Major.
(www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6333443)
1863 Bloody Bill Anderson, notorious Confederate guerilla leader, executed all the troopers in a raid but one, Sergeant T.M. Goodman, who was left alive to deliver news of the raid to Union officers.
(SFC, 9/23/96, A15)
1863 Dorence Atwater was captured by the Confederates and his penmanship won him the job of recording the name, company, regiment, disease, date of death, and grave number of each prisoner who had died at Andersonville. Atwater made a secret copy of the list and after the war wanted to publish it so that the families of the dead would know where their loved ones were buried. When the Civil War ended, former Union soldier Dorence Atwater sought Clara Barton’s help to publish a list of soldiers who had died while interned at the Confederate Andersonville prison camp in Georgia. He approached Clara Barton, who had already opened an office to locate missing Union soldiers. When they tried to publish the death register, however, it resulted in Atwater’s court marital and imprisonment.
(HNQ, 2/27/01)
1863 A woman was executed in Texas. The next woman to face execution would be Karla Faye Tucker in 1998.
(SFC, 2/5/97, p.A7)(WSJ, 2/3/98, p.A1)
1863 In northern California the 331-foot Knight’s Ferry Bridge was erected over the Stanislaus River.
(KCSM TV, Calif. Gold, 10/10/11)
1863 In California the state’s "black laws" were repealed.
(SFC, 7/18/98, p.A15)
1863 The California Teachers Association was formed.
(SSFC, 1/23/05, p.C1)
1863 San Francisco’s St. Brigid Church was founded. It was later rebuilt 6 times and transformed from a wooden structure to a granite building with stained glass imported from Dublin, Ireland. Construction had begun in 1860. The SF Archdiocese closed the church in 1994.
(SFC, 6/30/99, p.A14)(SSFC, 8/14/11, p.F3)
1863 As San Francisco voters considered a bond measure to help finance the Central Pacific Railroad, Philip Stanford, brother of the governor, drove through the city on election day "handing out money liberally’ to all who would vote for the bond.
(SFC, 7/8/96, p.D2)
1863 St. Mary’s College was built on College Hill near Richland Ave and Mission St. It left San Francisco for Oakland in 1889 and later moved to Moraga.
(SFC, 5/22/13, p.E6)
1863 The rails of the SF & San Jose Railroad were completed to San Mateo. The Santa Clara depot opened as the first station on the line.
(Ind, 10/31/98, p.5A)(SFC, 1/15/14, p.E1)
1863 A locomotive named the Gov. Stanford was built by Richard Norris & Son in Philadelphia and shipped around Cape Horn to California by schooner. It hauled the Central Pacific’s 1st freight and passenger trains and later was made a centerpiece at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento.
(SSFC, 8/8/04, p.D5)(SSFC, 2/9/14, p.P2)
1863 John A. Frye (d.1911), a shoemaker from England, founded the Frye Boot company in the US.
(www.bootbarn.com/blog/archives/2005/07/frye_boots_step.html).
(WSJ, 6/21/07, p.D1)
1863 Linus Yale Jr. introduced the Double Dial bank lock. It revolutionized the vault business by presenting 100 million possible combinations.
(WSJ, 12/2/06, p.P9)
1863 John D. Rockefeller and partner Maurice Clark invested $4,000 to start an oil refinery.
(WSJ, 5/8/98, p.W10)
1863 Sir Francis Galton theorized that the quality of human offspring would improve if talented people married only other talented people. His ideas led to the eugenics movement.
(SSFC, 11/9/03, p.D1)
1863 William Banting, An English undertaker, printed his pamphlet “Letter on Corpulence," in which he recommended a high protein diet that helped him loose weight. The diet was based on one recently recommended for diabetics.
(WSJ, 5/5/04, p.B1)
1863 Last Chance Gulch and Alder Gulch were sites of major gold discoveries in the American West. Each became a city and each served as capital of the territory that eventually became the state of Montana. After the gold strikes, Alder Gulch became Virginia City and Last Chance Gulch became Helena.
(HNQ, 2/9/00)
1863 The star U Scorpii flared up as a recurrent novae. It recurred in 1906 and 1936.
(SCTS, p.182)
1863 William Makepeace Thackeray (b.1811), English novelist and satirist, died. His books, which included "Vanity Fair," were published as monthly serials. In 2001 D.J. Taylor authored the biography "Thackeray: The Life of a Literary Man." Thackeray was a chronicler of upward mobility.
(HN, 7/18/98)(WSJ, 11/12/01, p.A20)
1863 The sailing ship Star of India was built as Euterpe, a full-rigged iron ship in Ramsey, Isle of Man. In 1926, Star of India was sold to the Zoological Society of San Diego, to be the centerpiece of a planned museum and aquarium. The Great Depression and World War II caused that plan to be canceled; it wasn't until 1957 that her restoration began.
(SFC, 11/13/06, p.B1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_of_India_(ship))
1863 The British military invaded Maori land in New Zealand in violation of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi.
(Fin. Post, 11/2/95, p.2)
1863 The Cayman Islands became a British Caribbean territory.
(AP, 5/10/03)
1863 French forces captured Puebla, Mexico.
(SFEC,11/9/97, p.T6)
1863 Ludwig II (1845-1886) became king of Bavaria after his father died.
(SFEC, 4/9/00, p.T5)
1863 In Iran the Bahai faith was founded by Hussain Ali (b. Nov 12, 1817 in Iran). It reflected the attitudes of the Shiah sect with an emphasis on tolerance. Among its principles are full equality between the sexes, universal education and the establishment of a world of a world federal system. The Baha'i Faith was founded in Iran by a man named Baha'u'llah, which literally means "The Glory of God".
(WUD, 1994, p.111)(SFC, 10/30/98, p.A20)
1863 In Italy the Grand Hotel des Iles Borromees opened in Stresa on Lake Maggiore.
(AMNHDT, 5/98)
1863 Radama II, ruler of Madagascar, was assassinated. He was succeeded by his wife Rasoherina, who was later succeeded by another of Radama's wives, Ranavalona II.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radama_II_of_Madagascar)
1863 Prince Charles III built the casino of Monte Carlo. The Monte Carlo Casino was built and officially named the Sea Bathing & Circle of Foreigners Co.
(SFC, 1/8/97, p.C1)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)
1863 The Matica Slovenska was founded as a cultural organization and nurtured the dream of Slovak independence.
(WSJ, 4/26/96, p.A-11)
1863-1865 The 1998 novel "The Last Full Measure" by Jeff Shaara covers the last years of the Civil War.
(SFEC, 6/21/98, p.D5)
1863-1865 In the Dominican Republic the conflict of this period was known as the War of the Restoration. From 1844--after independence from Haitian—until 1899, the fledgling republic was dominated by a series of dictatorial "men on horseback." One of these strong men, Pedro Santana, endeavored to stave off the threat of Haiti by returning the country to Spanish control, with him as the Governor General beginning in 1861. The Spanish troops eventually left, but the idea of the protectorate remained, eventually leading to U.S. occupation in 1916.
(HNQ, 8/10/00)
1863-1867 Felix Nadar joined a group of men that included Jules Verne to promote the development of flying machines, which they envisioned as helicopters. They funded the building of the Geant, the largest balloon yet flown that measured 147 feet in circumference. It held 12 people in a two-story basket and flew over a number of cities before crashing in Hanover injuring both Nadar and his wife. This made him quite famous and he wrote two books about his experiences.
(Smith., 5/95, p.79-80)
1863-1869 The Big Four Sacramento merchants, Charles Crocker, Mark Hopkins, Collis P. Huntington, and Leland Stanford put up the initial money for the Central Pacific Railroad. Congress thought that silver from the Comstock mines would help finance the Civil War and contracted the Central Pacific and Union Pacific to build a trans-continental railroad.
(SFC, 5/19/96,City Guide, p.17)
1863-1869 In 2000 Stephen E. Ambrose authored "Nothing Like It in the World, The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869."
(SSFC, 12/17/00, BR p.10)
1863-1933 Constantine Cavafy, Greek poet. He describes the coming of the barbarians and the fall of the Roman empire as: "At least they were some kind of solution."
(V.D.-H.K.p.296)
1863-1936 James Harvey Robinson, American historian: "We are incredibly heedless in the formation of our beliefs, but find ourselves filled with an illicit passion for them when anyone proposes to rob us of their companionship."
(AP, 11/23/97)
1863-1941 William Gibbs McAdoo, American government official: "It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument."
(AP, 6/11/97)
1863-1952 George Santayana, Spanish-American philosopher: "What man strives to preserve, in preserving himself, is something which he has never been at any particular moment." "Miracles are propitious accidents, the natural causes of which are too complicated to be readily understood."
(AP, 12/7/97)(HN, 7/18/98)
