Timeline 1864-1866
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1864 Jan 1,
Alfred Stieglitz (d.1946), American photographer, was born in New
Jersey.
(www.fact-index.com)
1864 Jan 3, John Joseph Hughes
(b.1797), Irish-born Archbishop of the Catholic diocese of NY, died.
(WSJ, 12/5/08,
p.A19)(www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/John-Joseph-Hughes)
1864 Jan 10, George Washington
Carver (d.1943), American botanist and a former slave who became a
scientist and inventor, gave the world peanut butter, was born.
"Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the
habit of making excuses."
(AP, 9/20/98)(HN, 1/10/99)
1864 Jan 11, H. George Selfridge,
founder of the British store Selfridge and Co., Ltd., was born. He was
the first to say "the customer is always right."
(HN, 1/11/99)
1864 Jan 11, Charing Cross Station
opened in London.
(MC, 1/11/02)
1864 Jan 13, Wilhelm K.W. Wien,
German physicist (Nobel 1911), was born.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1864 Jan 13, Composer Stephen
Foster (37), composer and American song writer, died in a New York City
hospital. Ken Emerson later authored his biography.
(HFA, '96, p.22)(AHD, p. 519)(AP, 1/13/98)(SFC,
4/23/01, p.E4)
1864 Jan 14, Confederate President
Jefferson Davis wrote to General Johnson, observing that troops might
need to be sent to Alabama or Mississippi.
(HN, 1/14/99)
1864 Jan 14, General Sherman began
his march to the South.
(MC, 1/14/02)
1864 Jan 16, A celebration was
held in San Jose for the completion of the San Francisco and San Jose
Railroad.
(Ind, 4/20/02, 5A)
1864 Jan 24, Eliza Sinclair
(d.1892), a widow from New Zealand, paid the Hawaiian monarchy $10,000
in gold for the 70-square-mile Hawaiian island of Niihau. Her
son-in-law, Valdemar Knudsen, later paid an additional 1,000 silver
dollars for 50 acres that were not included in the original deal.
(www.clansinclairusa.org/articles/march2001/elizabeth.php)
1864 Feb 5, Federal forces
occupied Jackson, Miss.
(HN, 2/5/99)
1864 Feb 7, Federal troops
occupied Jacksonville, Florida.
(MC, 2/7/02)
1864 Feb 9, After a courtship that
began at a party on Thanksgiving Day 1862, Brevet General George
Armstrong Custer and Miss Elizabeth Bacon, both of Monroe, Michigan,
married. Until Custer died at the Battle of the Little Bighorn a dozen
years later, Libbie followed him to postings throughout the West
whenever possible. Libbie never remarried, even though she outlived her
husband by 50 years, preferring to keep his memory alive by lecturing
and writing books about their life together on the Plains. Elizabeth
Custer lived comfortably in New York City until her death on April 8,
1933, at the age of 91.
(HNPD, 2/9/99)
1864 Feb 9, 109 Union prisoners
escaped through a tunnel from the Confederate Libby Prison in Richmond,
Va., including Lt. James M. Wells of Michigan. In 1904 Wells published
an account of the escape in the Jan. issue of McClure’s Magazine.
(ON, 3/01, p.7)
1864 Feb 10, Konstanty Kalinowski,
the last Lithuanian provincial rebel leader, was captured. He was
hanged a month later.
(LHC, 2/10/03)
1864 Feb 13, Miridian Campaign
fighting at Chunky Creek and Wyatt, Mississippi.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1864 Feb 16, Battle of Mobile,
Al., operations by Union Army.
(MC, 2/16/02)
1864 Feb 17, Andrew Barton "Banjo"
Paterson (d.1941), Australian poet and journalist, was born. He is best
known for his song “Waltzing Matilda.”
(HN, 2/17/01)(NG, 8/04, p.29)
1864 Feb 17, Confederate officer
George Dixon used the submarine H.L. Hunley to sink the USS Housatonic
in Charleston Harbor, S.C. 5 Union soldiers died on the Housatonic as
did the 9-man crew of the Hunley as it soon sank. In 1995 the Hunley
was found by Clive Cussler. The event was turned into a TNT cable movie
in 1999. On Aug 8, 2000, the Hunley was raised and returned to
Charleston.
(HN, 2/17/98)(SFC, 7/9/99, p.C1)(SFC, 8/9/00,
p.A3)(Econ, 4/10/04, p.25)
1864 Feb 20, Confederate troops
defeated a Union army sent to bring Florida into the union at the
Battle of Olustee, Fla.
(HN, 2/20/99)
1864 Feb 21, The 1st US Catholic
parish church for blacks was dedicated in Baltimore.
(MC, 2/21/02)
1864 Feb 21-22, Battle at Okolona,
Mississippi.
(MC, 2/21/02)
1864 Feb 22, Nathan Bedford
Forrest’s brother, Jeffrey, was killed at Okolona, Miss. Nathan Bedford
Forrest (1821-1877) was a Confederate cavalry general.
(HN, 2/22/98)(WUD, 1994, p.558)
1864 Feb 22-27, Battle at Dalton,
Georgia.
(MC, 2/22/02)
1864 Feb 24-25, Battle of Tunnel
Hill, GA (Buzzard's Roost).
(MC, 2/24/02)
1864 Feb 27, The 6th and last day
of battle at Dalton, Georgia, (about 600 casualties).
(MC, 2/27/02)
1864 Feb 27, The first Union
prisoners arrived at Camp Sumter prison near Andersonville, Georgia. It
was designed for 6,000 prisoners but by summer’s end held 33,000. After
enduring the hardship of being held in the South's Andersonville and
Cahaba prison camps, A terrible disaster befell hundreds of Union
soldiers who were being shipped home on the steamer Sultana at the end
of the Civil War. The setting was made into a film for TV by John
Frankheimer in 1996 based on an original script by David Rintels. Of
the 45,000 Union prisoners of war that were brought to Andersonville,
29% i.e. 12,914, died there. In 1971 it became a National Park Service
site.
(WSJ, 2/26/96, p.A-10)(SFC, 4/28/96, p.T-10)(HN,
2/27/98)(AH, 10/02, p.20)
1864 Feb 28-Mar 3, A skirmish took
place at Albemarle County, Virginia (Burton's Ford).
(MC, 2/28/02)
1864 Feb 29, Union Brig. Gen.
Judson Kilpatrick split his forces at the Rapidan River ordering Col.
Ulric Dahlgren to lead 500 men his men to Goochland Court House, while
the remainder followed Kilpatrick in his raid on Richmond.
(HN, 2/29/00)
1864 Feb 29, Lt. William B.
Cushing led a landing party from the USS Monticello to Smithville, NC,
in an attempt to capture Confederate Brig. Gen. Louis Hebert, only to
discover that Hebert and his men had already moved on Wilmington.
(HN, 2/29/00)
1864 Mar 1, Rebecca Lee
(1831-1895) became the first black woman to receive an American medical
degree, from the New England Female Medical College in Boston.
(AP,
3/1/00)(www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/physicians/biography_73.html)
1864 Mar 1, Louis Ducos du Hauron
patented a movie machine that was never built.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1864 Mar 4, Thomas Starr King
(b.1824), Unitarian minister, died in SF. During the Civil War, he
spoke zealously in favor of the Union and is credited (by Abraham
Lincoln) with saving California from becoming a separate republic. In
addition, he organized the Pacific Branch of the United States Sanitary
Commission, which cared for wounded soldiers. He led many rallies on
behalf of the Union in SF, and the site of the rallies was later
renamed Union Square.
(SSFC, 7/21/02,
p.F2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Starr_King)
1864 Mar 9, 1864, President
Abraham Lincoln officially commissioned Ulysses S. Grant lieutenant
general in the U.S. Army. After leading Union victories in the West in
1862-63, Lincoln gave Grant supreme command of the Union forces with
the revived rank of lieutenant general.
(HNQ, 3/13/99)
1864 Mar 10, Ulysses S. Grant
became commander of the Union armies in the Civil War.
(AP, 3/10/98)
1864 Mar 10, Red River campaign
took place in LA. [see Mar 15]
(MC, 3/10/02)
1864 Mar 12, Ulysses S. Grant
became commander in chief of the Union armies in the American Civil War.
(AP, 3/12/07)
1864 Mar 14, Casey Jones (John
Luther Jones), railroad engineer, was born.
(HFA, ‘96, p.26)(HN, 3/14/01)(MC, 3/14/02)
1864 Mar 14, Rossini's "Petite
Messe Solennelle," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 3/14/02)
1864 Mar 14, Samuel and Florence
Baker arrived at Lake Luta N’Zige and named it Lake Albert. They soon
found that the Nile entered the lake at a 130-foot waterfall that they
named Murchison Falls (Uganda) after the president of the British Royal
Geographical Society. In 2004 Pat shipman authored “To the Heart of the
Nile: Lady Florence Baker and the Exploration of Central Africa.”
(ON, 10/01, p.12)(Econ, 4/24/04, p.87)
1864 Mar 15, Red River Campaign
began as the Union forces reached Alexandria, La.
(HN, 3/15/98)
1864 Mar 18, The Dale Dike on
Humber River, England, crumbled drowning some 240.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1864 Mar 19, Montana vigilantes
lynched Jack Slade (33), a hell-raising freight hauler. Mark Twain had
encountered Slade in 1861 and included him in his book “Roughing It”
(1872). In 2008 Dan Rottenberg authored “Death of a Gunfighter: The
Quest for Jack Slade, the West’s Most Elusive Legend.”
(WSJ, 11/11/08,
p.A15)(www.twainquotes.com/Slade.html)
1864 Mar 19, Charles Gounod's
opera "Mireille" premiered in Paris.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1864 Mar 21, Battle at Henderson's
Hill (Bayou Rapids), Louisiana.
(MC, 3/21/02)
1864 Mar 23, Encounter at Camden,
AR.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1864 Mar 25, Battle of Paducah, KY
(Forrest's raid).
(MC, 3/25/02)
1864 Mar 28, A group of
Copperheads attacked Federal soldiers in Charleston Ill. Five were
killed and twenty wounded.
(HN, 3/28/99)
1864 Mar 29, Union General
Steele's troops reached Arkadelphia, Arkansas.
(MC, 3/29/02)
1864 Mar 30, Skirmish at Mount
Elba, Arkansas.
(MC, 3/30/02)
1864 Apr 1, The first travel
accident policy was issued to James Batterson by the Travelers
Insurance Company.
(OTD)
1864 Apr 2, Skirmish at Crump's
Hill (Piney Woods), Louisiana.
(MC, 4/2/02)
1864 Apr 2, Skirmish at
Spoonville-Antoine, Arkansas.
(MC, 4/2/02)
1864 Apr 8, In the Battle of
Mansfield, Louisiana, Federals were routed by Confederate Gen. Richard
Taylor. Keatchi girl’s school was taken over as a hospital for the
injured soldiers.
(HN, 4/8/98)(SSFC, 7/7/02, p.C5)
1864 Apr 9, The Battle of Pleasant
Hill, LA, left 2,870 casualties.
(MC, 4/9/02)
1864 Apr 10, Eugene Francis
Charles D'Albert, German pianist, composer (Golem), was born.
(MC, 4/10/02)
1864 Apr 10, The French crowned
Archduke Maximilian, the younger brother of Austria’s Franz Josef, as
ruler of Mexico.
(CLTIH, 4/10/96)(WSJ, 5/5/00, p.W17)
1864 Apr 12, Battle of Blair's
Landing in LA.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1864 Apr 12, Confederate forces
under Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest captured Fort Pillow, Tennessee, and
killed many black Union troops there. Charged with ruthless killing,
Forrest argued that the soldiers had been killed trying to escape;
however, racial animosity on the part of his troops was undoubtedly a
factor.
(HN, 4/12/99)(
http://www.civilwarweb.com/articles/05-99/ftpillow.htm)
1864 Apr 15, General Steele's
Union troops occupied Camden, Arkansas.
(MC, 4/15/02)
1864 Apr 16, Flora Batson, soprano
baritone singer, was born.
(HN, 4/16/99)
1864 Apr 17, General Grant banned
the trading of prisoners.
(HN, 4/17/98)
1864 Apr 17, There was a bread
revolt in Savannah, Georgia.
(MC, 4/17/02)
1864 Apr 18, Richard Harding
Davis, journalist, was born.
(HN, 4/18/01)
1864 Apr 19, Naval Engagement at
Cherbourg, France: USS Kearsarge vs. CSS Alabama. [see Jun 19]
(MC, 4/19/02)
1864 Apr 21, Max Weber (d.1920),
German sociologist and political economist, was born. Weber drew strong
connection between Protestantism and the rise of capitalism in "The
Protestant and the Spirit of Capitalism" (1904). "He was the first
sociologist to grasp that the universe has no true meaning." In 1996
"Max Weber: Politics and the Spirit of Tragedy" by John Patrick Diggins
was published.
(V.D.-H.K.p.167)(WSJ, 9/3/98, p.A1)(HN, 4/21/01)
1864 Apr 22, Congress authorized
the use of the phrase "In God We Trust" on for the 1st time on a 2 cent
coin.
(AP, 4/22/97)(MC, 4/22/02)
1864 Apr 23, Battle of Cane River,
LA (Red River Expedition, Monett's Ferry).
(MC, 4/23/02)
1864 Apr 25, Battle of Marks’
Mill, Arkansas.
(HN, 4/25/98)
1864 Apr 25, After facing defeat
in the Red River Campaign, Union General Nathaniel Bank returned to
Alexandria, Louisiana.
(HN, 4/25/99)
1864 Apr 30, Work began on the
Dams along the Red River which would allow Union General Nathaniel
Banks’ troops to sail over the rapids above Alexandria, Louisiana.
(HN, 4/30/98)
1864 Apr 30, New York became the
1st state to charge for a hunting license.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1864 Apr, At Fort Pillow, Tenn.,
Confederate troops murdered at least 25 black Union soldiers who had
surrendered and begged for their lives. In 1996 "Don’t Know Much About
the Civil War: Everything You Need to Know About America’s Greatest
Conflict But Never Learned" by Kenneth C. Davis was published.
(SFC, 6/19/96, p.E8)
1864 May 1-8, Battle at
Alexandria, Louisiana (Red River Campaign).
(MC, 5/1/02)
1864 May 1, Atlanta campaign, GA.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1864 May 4, Ulysses S. Grant
crossed Rapidan and began his duel with Robert E. Lee’s Confederate
army.
(HN, 5/4/98)
1864 May 5, Atlanta Campaign: 5
days fighting began at Rocky Face Ridge.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1864 May 5, The Battle of
Wilderness began as Robert E. Lee caught U.S. Grant's forces in the
Virginia woods. It was the first in a series of clashes fought as
Grant's army advanced on Richmond, Va. During the close range fighting
in the dense woods of Virginia, forest fires broke out, killing many
wounded soldiers. While the battle ended as a tactical draw, Lee was
unable to halt Grant's progress toward Richmond.
(HN, 5/5/98)(HNPD, 5/5/99)
1864 May 5, Battle between
Confederate & Union ships at mouth of Roanoke.
(MC, 5/5/02)
1864 May 6, In the second day of
the Battle of Wilderness between Union General Ulysses S. Grant and
Confederate General Robert E. Lee, Confederate Gen. James Longstreet
(d.1903) was wounded by his own men.
(HN, 5/6/99)(MC, 5/6/02)
1864 May 6, General Sherman began
to advance on Atlanta.
(MC, 5/6/02)
1864 May 7, In Virginia the Battle
of Wilderness ended, with heavy losses to both sides. Union losses were
17,666; CSA-7,500. In 2002 the US federal government bought the
465-acre tract of the battle site and incorporated it into
Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania Military Park.
(HN, 5/7/98)(AARP, 7/05, p.12)
1864 May 8, Union troops arrived
at Spotsylvania Court House to find the Confederates waiting for them.
(HN, 5/8/99)
1864 May 8, The Atlanta Campaign
saw severe fighting at Rocky Face Ridge.
(HN, 5/8/98)
1864 May 8-19 Grant and Lee‘s
armies suffered horrendous losses at the "Bloody Angle" during the
Battle of Spotsylvania. Shortly after the Battle of the Wilderness,
Grant‘s Union forces once again attempted to outflank or smash Lee‘s
Confederates. Defensive breastworks contributed to savage, close combat
that lasted about a week and a half, resulting in 17,000 Union and
8,000 casualties.
(HNQ, 10//00)
1864 May 9, Union General John
Sedgwick was shot and killed by a confederate sharpshooter during
fighting at Spotsylvania, Va. His last words before getting hit were
"They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance."
(HN, 5/9/99)
1864 May 9, Battle of Dalton, GA.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1864 May 9, Battle of Cloyd's Mt.
and Swift Creek, VA (Drewry’s Bluff, Ft. Darling).
(MC, 5/9/02)
1864 May 9, Austria and Denmark
held a ship battle at Helgoland.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1864 May 10, Battles at
Spotsylvania Court House, Virginia. [see May 8]
(MC, 5/10/02)
1864 May 11, Confederate General
J.E.B. Stuart was mortally wounded at Yellow Tavern.
(HN, 5/11/98)
1864 May 12, The Battle of
Spotsylvania Courthouse, Virginia, was fought.
(SC, Internet, 5/12/97)
1864 May 12, Battle of Todd's
Tavern, VA (Sheridan's Raid).
(MC, 5/12/02)
1864 May 12, Union General
Benjamin Butler attacked Drewry’s Bluff on the James River.
(SC, internet, 5/12/97)(HN, 5/12/99)
1864 May 12, J.E.B. Stuart (31),
Confederate Gen’l., died. [see May 11]
(SC, Internet, 5/12/97)(MC, 5/12/02)
1864 May 13, Battle of Resaca
commenced as Union General Sherman fought towards Atlanta.
(SS, Internet, 5/13/97)(HN, 5/13/98)
1864 May 15, At Battle of New
Market, Virginia, Military Institute cadets repelled a Union attack.
(HN, 5/15/99)
1864 May 15, In mid-May about
daylight Major Downing succeeded in surprising the Cheyenne village of
Cedar Bluffs, in a small canon about 60 miles north of the South Platte
river. “We commenced shooting. I ordered the men to commence killing
them. They lost, as I am informed, some 26 killed and 30 wounded. My
own loss was one killed and one wounded. I burnt up their lodges and
everything I could get hold of. I took no prisoners. We got out of
ammunition and could not pursue them."
(http://facweb.furman.edu/~benson/docs/peace.htm)
1864 May 16, In the Atlanta
Campaign, the battle of Resaca, begun May 13, ended.
(MC, 5/16/02)
1864 May 16, Platt Rogers Spencer
(b.1800), the originator of Spencerian penmanship, a popular system of
cursive handwriting, died in Geneva, Ohio.
(WSJ, 1/24/09,
p.W8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platt_Rogers_Spencer)
1864 May 17, The Battle of
Adairsville, Georgia, resulted in a Confederate retreat.
(HN, 5/17/98)
1864 May 18, Jan P. Veth Bayern,
Dutch painter, etcher, lithographer, art historian, was born.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1864 May 18, The fighting at
Spotsylvania in Virginia, reached its peak at the Bloody Angle.
(HN, 5/18/99)
1864 May 18, Battle of Yellow
Bayou, LA (Bayou de Glaize, Old Oaks).
(SC, 5/18/02)
1864 May 18, James Byron Gordon
(41) Confederate Brigadier-General, died.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1864 May 19, The last engagement
in a series of battles of Spotsylvania was fought. Following the
American Civil War Battle of Spotsylvania in 1864, General Ulysses S.
Grant said, "The world has never seen so bloody and so protracted a
battle as the one being fought and I hope never will again."
(HN, 5/19/98)(HNQ, 2/12/99)
1864 May 19, Battle of Port
Walthall Junction, VA (Bermuda Hundred).
(MC, 5/19/02)
1864 May 19, Nathaniel Hawthorne
(b.1804), US writer (Scarlet Letter), died in Plymouth, New Hampshire.
Friend and former US Pres. Franklin Pierce was at his bedside. In 2003
Brenda Wineapple authored "Hawthorne: A Life."
(MC, 5/19/02)(http://www.gradesaver.com/)(SSFC,
10/5/03, p.M1)
1864 May 20, Battle at Ware Bottom
Church, Virginia, killed or injured 1,400.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1864 May 20, Spotsylvania-campaign
ended after 10,920 were killed or injured person.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1864 May 21, Gen. David Hunter
took command of Dept. of West Virginia.
(MC, 5/21/02)
1864 May 22, Battle of North Anna
River, VA.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1864 May 23, Union General Ulysses
Grant attempted to outflank Lee in the Battle of North Anna, Virginia.
(HN, 5/23/98)
1864 May 25, Battle of New Hope
Church, Ga. Joseph E. Johnston tried to halt Sherman’s advance on
Atlanta at the Hell Hole.
(SC, 5/25/02)(AM, 11/04, p.28)
1864 May 26, Congress created the
Montana Territory and Virginia City became the capital in 1865. Helena
was made capital of the territory in 1875. Montana became the
41st state in 1889, with Helena the state capital.
(AP, 5/26/98)(HNQ, 2/9/00)
1864 May 26-30, There was a
skirmish along the Totopotomoy Creek, Virginia.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1864 May 29, A.H. Borgesius, Dutch
amateur astronomer, was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1864 May 29, Mexican Emperor
Maximilian arrived at Vera Cruz.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1864 May 30, Battle of Bethesda
Church, VA.
(MC, 5/30/02)
1864 Jun 1, Battle of Cold Harbor,
Virginia, began as Lee tried to turn Grant’s flank.
(HN, 6/1/98)
1864 Jun 1-Nov, Shenandoah Valley
campaign began. (MC, 6/1/02)
1864 Jun 1, Hong Xiuquan (b.1814),
leader of the Taiping Heavenly Army, died from poisoning. At the time
of his death his led over 100,000 troops and controlled an area bigger
than France. In 1996 Jonathan Spence authored “God’s Chinese Son,” a
biography of Xiuquan, who believed himself to be God’s second son.
(WSJ, 8/18/07,
p.P9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Xiuquan)
1864 Jun 2, This was day 2 in the
Battle of Cold Harbor.
(SC, 6/2/02)
1864 Jun 3, Some 7,000 Union
troops were killed within 30 minutes during the Battle of Cold Harbor
in Virginia. General Lee won his last victory of the Civil War at the
Battle of Cold Harbor in Virginia
(HN, 6/3/98)(MC, 6/3/02)
1864 Jun 4, With Gen. Sherman
again flanking them, Confederates under General Joseph Johnston
retreated to the mountains before Marietta, Georgia. General Joseph E.
Johnston, the Confederacy’s second-ranking field general, described the
army led by Union General William Tecumseh Sherman as the best "since
the days of Julius Caesar."
(HN, 6/4/98)(HNQ, 9/4/98)
1864 Jun 5, Battle of Piedmont, VA
(Augusta City).
(MC, 6/5/02)
1864 Jun 8, Abraham Lincoln was
nominated for another term as president during the National Union
(Republican) Party's convention in Baltimore.
(AP, 6/8/07)
1864 Jun 9, Battle of Kenesaw
Mountain, GA (Pine Mt, Pine Knob, Golgotha).
(MC, 6/9/02)
1864 Jun 11, Gen. Wade Hampton
(1818-1902) led a company of Citadel cadets at the battle of Trevilian
Station in Virginia.
(WSJ, 6/7/08,
p.W9)(http://civilwarcavalry.com/?p=207)
1864 Jun 11, Richard Strauss
(d.1949), German orchestra conductor and composer, was born. His work
included "Daphne" and "Ariadne auf Naxos," (1912).
(CFA, ‘96, p.48)(WUD, 1994, p.1405)
1864 Jun 12, Lee sent Early into
the Shenandoah Valley.
(MC, 6/12/02)
1864 Jun 14, Alois Alzheimer
(d.1915), German psychiatrist, pathologist (Alzheimer Disease), was
born.
(www.ibro.info/Pub_Main_Display.asp?Main_ID=34)
1864 Jun 14, At the Battle of Pine
Mountain, Georgia, Confederate General Leonidas Polk was killed by a
Union shell.
(HN, 6/14/98)
1864 Jun 15, Secretary of War
Edwin M. Stanton signed an order establishing a military burial ground
at Robert E. Lee's home estate at Arlington. This became Arlington
National Cemetery. It was founded by Union Quartermaster Gen.
Montgomery C. Meigs, who had lost a son in the war. The first soldier
buried at Arlington was in May, 1864.
(AP, 6/15/97)(SFC, 2/16/09, p.E6)
1864 Jun 15, Battle for
Petersburg, Virg., began as Union forces skirmished against the
Confederate line.
(HN, 6/15/98)
1864 Jun 16, Siege of Petersburg
and Richmond began after a moonlight skirmish.
(HN, 6/16/98)
1864 Jun 16, Battle of Lynchburg,
VA.
(MC, 6/16/02)
1864 Jun 17, A 640 meter long
pontoon bridge over the James River in Virginia was finished.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1864 Jun 17, General John B. Hood
replaced General Johnston as head of CSA troops around Atlanta.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1864 Jun 18, At Petersburg, Union
General Ulysses S. Grant realized the town could no longer be taken by
assault and settled into a siege.
(HN, 6/18/98)
1864 Jun 19, Skirmish at Pine Knob
Georgia.
(DTnet, 6/19/97)
1864 Jun 19, The CSS "Alabama" was
sunk by the USS "Kearsarge" off Cherbourg, France. The Alabama had
captured, sank or burned 68 ships in 22 months.
(DT, 6/19/97)(HN, 6/19/98)(HNQ, 11/28/00)
1864 Jun 20, Battle of Petersburg,
VA, in trenches.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1864 Jun 22, Confederate General
A. P. Hill turned back a Federal flanking movement at the Weldon
Railroad near Petersburg, Virginia.
(HN, 6/22/98)
1864 Jun 22, Battle of Ream's
Station, VA (Wilson's Raid).
(MC, 6/22/02)
1864 Jun 25, Union troops
surrounding Petersburg, Virginia began building a mine tunnel
underneath the Confederate lines. With the Army of Northern Virginia
stubbornly clinging to Petersburg, Ulysses S. Grant decided to cut its
vital rail lines.
(HN, 6/25/98)
1864 Jun 27, General Sherman was
repulsed by Confederates at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain.
(HN, 6/27/98)
1864 Jul 1, Battle of Petersburg,
VA, began.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1864 Jul 2, Statuary Hall in US
Capitol was established.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1864 Jul 2, Gen. Early and
Confederate forces reached Winchester.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1864 Jul 3, Battle of
Chattahoochee River, GA, began and lasted until Jul 9.
(MC, 7/3/02)
1864 Jul 3, At Harpers Ferry, WV,
Federals evacuated in face of Early's advance.
(MC, 7/3/02)
1864 Jul 4-9, Battle at
Chattahoochee River, Georgia.
(MC, 7/4/02)
1864 Jul 5, William Ralston
founded the Bank of California with $2 million in capital.
(Ind, 11/2/02, 5A)(SFC, 4/7/06, SF Rising p.14)
1864 Jul 6, Battle of
Chattahoochee River, GA.
(MC, 7/6/02)
1864 Jul 8, Confederate General
Joseph E. Johnston retreated into Atlanta to prevent being flanked by
Union General William T. Sherman.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1864 Jul 9, An informal force of
Union troops was defeated by Jubal Early at Monacacy, Maryland. Gen’l.
Lew Wallace was able to detain Confederate Lt. Gen’l. Jubal from an
early advance on Washington. Federal casualties numbered 1959 vs. 400
Confederate.
(HT, 3/97, p.66)(AP, 7/11/97)(HN, 7/9/98)(MC, 7/9/02)
1864 Jul 10, During the siege of
Petersburg, General Ulysses S. Grant established a huge supply center,
called City Point, at the confluence of the James and Appomattox
rivers. After nearly 10 months of trench warfare, Confederate
resistance at Petersburg, Va., suddenly collapsed. Desperate to save
his army, Robert E. Lee called on his soldiers for one last miracle.
(HN, 7/10/98)
1864 Jul 11, Confederate General
Jubal Early's army arrived in Silver Spring, Maryland, on the outskirts
of Washington, D.C., and began to probe the Union line. Confederate
forces led by Gen. Jubal Early began an invasion of Washington, D.C.,
turning back the next day.
(HT, 3/97, p.66)(AP, 7/11/97)(HN, 7/11/98)
1864 Jul 11(Jun 11), Battle of
Laurel Hill, WV.
(MC, 7/11/02)
1864 Jul 11(Jun 11), Battle of
Trevillian Station, VA (Central Railroad).
(MC, 7/11/02)
1864 Jul 12, President Abraham
Lincoln became the first standing president to witness a battle as
Union forces repelled Jubal Early’s army on the outskirts of
Washington, D.C.
(HN, 7/12/98)
1864 Jul 13, Gen Jubal Early
retreated from the outskirts of Washington back to Shenandoah Valley.
(MC, 7/13/02)
1864 Jul 14, At Harrisburg,
Mississippi, Federal troops under General Andrew Jackson Smith repulsed
an attack by General Nathan Bedford Forrest, one of Forrest’s only two
defeats.
(HN, 7/14/98)
1864 Jul 14, Gold was discovered
in Helena, Mont. Four prospectors discovered gold in a small stream
they called "Last Chance." This marked the birth of Helena, future
capital of Montana. [see 1863]
(Visitor’s brochure, 9/11/97)(MC, 7/14/02)
1864 Jul 17, Confederate President
Jefferson Davis replaced General Joseph E. Johnston with General John
Bell Hood in hopes of defeating Union General William T. Sherman
outside Atlanta.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1864 Jul 18, President Lincoln
asked for 500,000 volunteers for military service.
(MC, 7/18/02)
1864 Jul 18, Confederate Brig.
Gen. John Bell Hood (33), commanding a corps under Gen. Johnston, was
promoted to the temporary rank of full general, and given command of
the Army of Tennessee just outside the gates of Atlanta.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bell_Hood)
1864 Jul 18-20, Battle of
Winchester, VA (Stephenson's Depot).
(MC, 7/19/02)
1864 Jul 20, Confederate General
John Bell Hood attacked Union forces under General William T. Sherman
outside Atlanta. Gen. Hood lashed out against the Union right wing
north of the city. Repulsed but undaunted, Hood turned to strike the
Federal left wing, Major General James B. McPherson’s Army of the
Tennessee, east of Atlanta. He deployed Major General Benjamin F.
Chatham’s corps northeast of the city and sent Lieutenant General
William J. Hardee's corps around McPherson’s left flank with orders to
crush the Army of the Tennessee on the morning of July 22. Both corps
were then to assail the rest of Sherman’s host. Battle of Peachtree
Creek was part of the Atlanta Campaign.
(HN, 7/20/98)(HNQ, 7/19/01)(MC, 7/20/02)
1864 Jul 22, The Battle of Atlanta
reached its peak when Confederate General John Bell Hood launched an
all-out attack on Union General William T. Sherman's Army. Union
General James McPherson was killed repulsing a Confederate attack. The
Federal officer who sent his men naked against the enemy was Colonel
James P. Brownlow of the 1st (Union) Tennessee Cavalry. Casualties
numbered 8449 conf, 3641 US.
(HN, 7/22/98)(MC, 7/22/02)
1864 Jul 24, In the Battle of
Winchester, VA, casualties numbered US1200 and CS600.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1864 Jul 26-31, Riots took place
at McCook's to Lovejoy Station, and Stoneman's to Macon, Georgia.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1864 Jul 26, Battle at Ezra Chapel
(Church), Georgia [Hood's Third Sortie].
(MC, 7/26/02)
1864 Jul 27, Battle of Darbytown,
VA (Deep Bottom, Newmarket Road) (Strawberry Plains).
(MC, 7/27/02)
1864 Jul 28, Atlanta
Campaign-Battle of Ezra Church.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1864 Jul 29, During the Civil War,
Union forces tried to take Petersburg, Va., by exploding a mine under
Confederate defense lines. The attack failed. [see Jul 30]
(AP, 7/30/97)
1864 Jul 29, 3rd and last day of
battle at Deep Bottom Run, Virginia.
(MC, 7/29/02)
1864 Jul 29, Battle of Macon, GA
(Stoneman's Raid).
(MC, 7/29/02)
1864 Jul 30, Gen Burnside failed
on an attack of Petersburg and in an effort to penetrate the
Confederate lines around Petersburg, Va., Union troops exploded some
8,000 pounds of gunpowder underneath the Confederate trenches. The
blast killed 100s of Confederates. Union forces could not capitalize on
the assault and ended up trapped in the bloody crater. The ensuing
action is known as the Battle of the Crater. 4,000 Union soldiers were
killed, wounded or captured in the Battle of the Crater during the
Siege of Petersburg. [see Jul 29]
(HN, 7/30/98)(HNQ, 8/23/00)(MC, 7/30/02)
1864 Jul 30, Confederate troops
attack Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. The town was burned by Union forces
under McCausland.
(MC, 7/30/02)
1864 Jul 31, Ulysses S. Grant was
named General of Volunteers.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1864 Jul 31, Louis Hachette (64),
French publisher, died.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1864 Aug 1, Union General Ulysses
S. Grant gave general Philip H. Sheridan the mission of clearing the
Shenandoah Valley of Confederate forces.
(HN, 8/1/98)
1864 Aug 1, Battle of Petersburg,
VA.
(MC, 8/1/02)
1864 Aug 3, Federal gunboats
attacked but did not capture Fort Gains, at the mouth of Mobile Bay,
Alabama.
(HN, 8/3/98)
1864 Aug 4, Federal troops failed
to capture Fort Gaines on Dauphin Island, one of the Confederate forts
defending Mobile Bay.
(HN, 8/4/99)
1864 Aug 5, During the Civil War,
Union Adm. David G. Farragut is said to have given his famous order,
"Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" as he led his fleet against
Mobile Bay, Ala. The Union Navy captured Mobile Bay in Alabama.
(AP, 8/5/97)(HN, 8/5/98)
1864 Aug 6, Rebels evacuated Ft.
Powell, Mobile Bay.
(MC, 8/6/02)
1864 Aug 7, Union troops captured
part of Confederate General Jubal Early's army at Moorefield, West
Virginia.
(HN, 8/7/98)
1864 Aug 8, Union troops and fleet
occupied Fort Gaines, Alabama.
(MC, 8/8/02)
1864 Aug 8, The 1st Geneva
Convention was issued on protecting the war wounded.
(www.redcross.org)
1864 Aug 10, Confederate Commander
John Bell Hood sent his cavalry north of Atlanta to cut off Union
General William Sherman’s supply lines.
(HN, 8/10/98)
1864 Aug 12, After a week of heavy
raiding, the Confederate cruiser Tallahassee claimed six Union ships
captured.
(HN, 8/12/98)
1864 Aug 13, Battle of Deep
Bottom, Va., (Strawberry Plains) and Fussell's Mill, Va.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1864 Aug 14-16, Confederate
General Joe Wheeler besieged Dalton, Georgia.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1864 Aug 14, A Federal assault
continued for a 2nd day of battle at Deep Bottom Run, Virginia.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1864 Aug 15, The Confederate
raider Tallahassee captured six Federal ships off New England.
(HN, 8/15/98)
1864 Aug 16, Battle of Front
Royal, VA. (Guard Hill).
(MC, 8/16/02)
1864 Aug 18, Union General William
T. Sherman sent General Judson Kilpatrick to raid Confederate lines of
communication outside Atlanta. The raid was unsuccessful. Union General
William Sherman considered Judson Kilpatrick, his cavalry chief, ‘a
hell of a damn fool.’
(HN, 8/18/98)
1864 Aug 18, Day 1 of 3 day
Petersburg Campaign-Battle of Weldon Railroad, Va.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1864 Aug 19, The 2nd day of battle
at Globe Tavern, Virginia.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1864 Aug 20, The 8th and last day
of battle at Deep Bottom Run, Va., left about 3900 casualties.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1864 Aug 21, Confederate General
A.P. Hill attacked Union troops south of Petersburg, Va., at the Weldon
railroad. His attack was repulsed, resulting in heavy Confederate
casualties.
(HN, 8/21/00)
1864 Aug 22, In Geneva,
Switzerland, representatives of 12 nations agreed to sign the First
Geneva Contention “for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded
in Armies in the Field.” By 1866 twenty countries had signed. 194
states were signatories as of 2008.
(ON, 4/08, p.12)
1864 Aug 23, Union troops and
fleet occupied Fort Morgan, Alabama.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1864 Aug 25, Confederate General
A.P. Hill pushed back Union General Winfield Scott Hancock from Reams
Station where his army had spent several days destroying railroad
tracks. With Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia stubbornly
clinging to Petersburg, Ulysses S. Grant decided to cut its vital rail
lines. To perform the surgery, he selected one of the North’s proven
heroes—‘Hancock the Superb.’
(HN, 8/25/98)
1864 Aug 25, A combination rail
and ferry service became available from SF to Alameda, Ca.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1864 Aug 28, The Democratic
National Convention began in Chicago. General George B. McClellan's
campaign platform called the war in America a failure. [see Aug 31]
(WSJ, 9/25/03, p.A18)
1864 Aug 31, At the Democratic
convention in Chicago, General George B. McClellan was nominated for
president. [see Aug 28]
(HN, 8/31/98)
1864 Aug 31, Atlanta
Campaign-Battle of Jonesboro Georgia, 1900 casualties.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1864 Sep 1, Roger David Casement,
Irish nationalist (Easter uprising 1916), was born.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1864 Sep 1, Confederate forces
under General John Bell Hood evacuated Atlanta in anticipation of the
arrival of Union General William T. Sherman's troops.
(HN, 9/1/99)
1864 Sep 1, 2nd day of battle at
Jonesboro, Georgia, left some 3,000 casualties.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1864 Sep 1, Battle of Petersburg,
VA.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1864 Sep 1, The Charlottetown
Conference, convened in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, was the
first of a series of meetings that ultimately led to the formation of
the Dominion of Canada.
(HNQ, 8/22/99)
1864 Sep 2, During the Civil War,
Union Gen. William T. Sherman’s forces occupied Atlanta.
(AP, 9/2/97)
1864 Sep 3, Battle of Berryville,
VA.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1864 Sep 4, Bread riots took place
in Mobile, Alabama.
(MC, 9/4/01)
1864 Sep 5, British, French &
Dutch fleets attacked Japan in Shimonoseki Straits.
(MC, 9/5/01)
1864 Sep 7, Union General Phil
Sheridan’s troops skirmished with the Confederates under Jubal Early
outside Winchester, Virginia.
(HN, 9/7/00)
1864 Sep 11, A 10-day truce was
declared between generals Sherman and Hood so civilians could leave
Atlanta, Georgia.
(HN, 9/11/98)
1864 Sep 14, Lord Robert Cecil,
one of the founders of the League of Nations and its president from
1923 to 1945, was born.
(HN, 9/14/98)
1864 Sep 16, Confederate General
Nathan Bedford Forrest led 4,500 men out of Verona, Miss. to harass
Union outposts in northern Alabama and Tennessee.
(HN, 9/16/98)
1864 Sep 17, Gen. Grant approved
Sheridan's plan for Shenandoah Valley Campaign. "I want it so barren
that a crow, flying down it, would need to pack rations."
(MC, 9/17/01)
1864 Sep 17, Walter Savage Landor,
author, died.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1864 Sep 18, Battle of
Martinsburg, WV.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1864 Sep 19, The 3rd Battle of
Winchester, Virginia (Opequon, 3rd Winchester).
(MC, 9/19/01)
1864 Sep 19, Archibald Campbell
Godwin, Confederate brig-general, died in battle.
(MC, 9/19/01)
1864 Sep 22, Union General Philip
Sheridan defeated Confederate General Jubal Early's troops at the
Battle of Fisher's Hill, in Virginia. Gen Early retreated to Brown's
Gap. Sheridan set up camp in Harrisonburg, Va.
(HN, 9/22/98)(MC, 9/22/01)
1864 Sep 23, Confederate and Union
forces clashed at Mount Jackson, Front Royal and Woodstock in Virginia
during the Valley campaign.
(HN, 9/23/98)
1864 Sep 23, Battle of Athens, Va.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1864 Sep 26, General Nathan
Bedford Forrest and his men assaulted a Federal garrison near Pulaski,
Tennessee.
(HN, 9/26/99)
1864 Sep 27, Confederate guerrilla
Bloody Bill Anderson and his henchmen, including a teenage Jesse James,
massacred 20 unarmed Union soldiers at Centralia, Mo.
(HN, 9/27/98)
1864 Sep 27, Battle at Pilot Knob
(Ft Davidson), Missouri. 1700 were killed or injured.
(MC, 9/27/01)
1864 Sep 28, Union General William
Rosecrans blamed his defeat at Chickamauga on two of his subordinate
generals. They were later exonerated by a court of inquiry.
(HN, 9/28/98)
1864 Sep 28-30, The Battle of Fort
Harrison Va. (Chaffin's Farm New Market Heights).
(MC, 9/28/01)
1864 Sep 29, Union troops captured
the Confederate Fort Harrison, outside Petersburg, Virginia. After
nearly 10 months of trench warfare, Confederate resistance at
Petersburg, Va., suddenly collapsed.
(HN, 9/29/98)
1864 Sep 29-30, Christian A.
Fleetwood was one of 13 African-American soldiers who won the Medal of
Honor at the Battle of Chaffin's Farm, Virginia.
(HN, 12/21/98)
1864 Sep 30, Black Soldiers were
given the Medal of Honor. [see Sep 29-30]
(MC, 9/30/01)
1864 Sep 30, Confederate troops
failed to retake Fort Harrison from the Union forces during the siege
of Petersburg.
(HN, 9/30/98)
1864 Sep 30, Battle of Preble's
Farm Va. (Poplar Springs Church).
(MC, 9/30/01)
1864 Sep, General William Tecumseh
Sherman held the opinion: "If forced to choose between the penitentiary
and the White House for four years . . .I would say the penitentiary,
thank you." William T. Sherman penned that thought in a letter to
General Henry W. Halleck in Sep, 1864. Twenty years later he squashed a
movement to name him the Republican presidential candidate, saying, "I
will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected."
(HNQ, 3/27/01)
1864 Oct 1, The Condor, a British
blockade-runner, was grounded near Fort Fisher, North Carolina.
(HN, 10/1/98)
1864 Oct 5, At the Battle of
Allatoona, a small Union post was saved from Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood's
army. 1/3 of Union troops died repulsing Southern forces.
(HN, 10/5/98)(MC, 10/5/01)
1864 Oct 5, Calcutta, India, was
denuded by a cyclone and some 70,000 people were killed.
(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1864 Oct 7, General Phil Sheridan
wired General Ulysses Grant that he had destroyed so much between
Winchester and Staunton that the area "will have little in it for man
or beast."
(HN, 10/7/98)
1864 Oct 7, The USS Wachusett
captured the CSS Florida in a naval engagement fought at the neutral
harbor of Bahia, Brazil. Many of the Confederate crew were ashore at
the time.
(AH, 10/04, p.15)
1864 Oct 7-13, Battle of Darbytown
Road, Va.
(MC, 10/7/01)
1864 Oct 9, At the Battle of Tom's
Brook the Confederate cavalry that harassed Sheridan's campaign was
wiped by Custer and Merrit's cavalry divisions.
(MC, 10/9/01)
1864 Oct 11, Slavery was abolished
in Maryland. [see Oct 13]
(MC, 10/11/01)
1864 Oct 12, Roger B. Taney
(b.1777), US Supreme Court Chief Justice (1836-1864), died after
serving over 28 years. He favored state’s rights and voided laws
limiting the rights of slaveholders. In the 1857 Dred Scott case Taney
ruled that blacks as slaves could not become citizens of the US.
(SFC, 9/6/05,
p.A4)(www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/legal_entity/24/)
1864 Oct 13, Battle at Darbytown
Road Virginia resulted in 337 casualties.
(MC, 10/13/01)
1864 Oct 13, Battle of Harpers
Ferry, WV (Mosby's Raid).
(MC, 10/13/01)
1864 Oct 13, Maryland voters
adopted a new constitution, including abolition of slavery. [see Oct 11]
(MC, 10/13/01)
1864 Oct 15, Confederate troops
occupied Glasgow, Missouri.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1864 Oct 17, Elinor Glyn, British
novelist (3 Weeks), was born.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1864 Oct 19, Philip Sheridan and
his gelding horse Rienzi made their most famous ride to repulse an
attack led by Lt. General Jubal A. Early at Cedar Creek, Virginia.
Sheridan had been on his way back from a strategy session in
Washington, D.C. when Early attacked. The Union scored a narrow victory
which helped it secure the Shenandoah Valley. Thomas Buchanan Read
later wrote a poem, "Sheridan‘s Ride," and created a painting
immortalizing the Union general and his steed.
(AP, 10/19/97)(HN, 10/19/98)(HNQ, 6/29/00)
1864 Oct 19, The northernmost
action of the American Civil War took place in the Vermont town of St.
Albans. Some 25 escaped Confederate POWs led by Kentuckian Bennett
Young (21) raided the town near the Canadian border with the intent of
robbing three banks and burning the town. While they managed to leave
town and hide out in Canada with more than $200,000, their attempts to
burn down the town failed. Most of the raiders were captured and
imprisoned in Canada and later released after a court ruled the
robberies in St. Albans were acts of war.
(HNQ, 12/9/98)(ON, 11/99, p.11)(MC, 10/19/01)
1864 Oct 20, Lincoln
established Thanksgiving as a national holiday. [see Oct 3, 1863]
(MC, 10/20/01)
1864 Oct 23, Forces led by Union
Gen. Samuel R. Curtis defeated Confederate Gen. Stirling Price’s army
in Missouri.
(AP, 10/23/97)
1864 Oct 25, Skirmishes took place
at Mine Creek, Ka., and Turkeytown, Al.
(MC, 10/25/01)
1864 Oct 27, Battle of Boydton
Plank Road, Va. (Burgess' Mill, Southside Railroad).
(MC, 10/27/01)
1864 Oct 27, Battle of Fair Oaks,
Va.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1864 Oct 27, Siege of Petersburg,
Va.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1864 Oct 27, Battle of Newtonia,
Mi.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1864 Oct 27, Confederate ship
Albemarle was torpedoed and sank.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1864 Oct 28, Battle at Fair Oaks,
Virginia, ended after 1554 casualties.
(MC, 10/28/01)
1864 Oct 31, Nevada became the
36th state under a proclamation signed by Pres. Lincoln.
(AP, 10/31/97)(LVRJ, 11/1/97, p.1B)(HN, 10/31/98)
1864 Oct, James Russel Lowell and
Charles Elliot Norton had resuscitated the North American Review and in
this issue published a book review, his first, by Henry James.
(WSJ, 10/17/96, p.A20)
1864 Oct, Financial pressures
exerted negative market influences as noted in a letter to the
Economist in 1865.
(WSJ, 9/28/95, p.A18)
1864 Oct, Lambdin P. Milligan and
two others were tried in an Indiana military court and found guilty of
conspiring with the South to set up a "Northwestern Confederacy." All
three conspirators were sentenced to hang the following May. Milligan,
maintaining his innocence, wrote this note to his friend Secretary of
War Edwin Stanton, pleading for his case to be reconsidered. Milligan's
case was based on the fact that he had been tried in a military court
in violation of his civil rights. His execution was postponed and the
Supreme Court then ruled in favor of Milligan and the other
conspirators, and on April 12, 1866, the prisoners were released. Ex
parte Milligan is considered an extremely important Supreme Court
decision, upholding the civil rights of all Americans. One Supreme
Court justice wrote, "No graver question was ever considered by this
court, nor one which more clearly concerns the rights of the whole
people; for it is the birthright of every American citizen when charged
with a crime, to be tried and punished according to the law."
(HNPD, 12/28/98)
1864 Nov 4, There was a
Confederate assault on the Union depot and headquarters at Reynoldsburg
Island, near Johnsonville, Tennessee. Paddle-wheelers USS Key West,
Acting Lt. King; USS Tawah, Acting Lt. Goudy; and small steamer U.S.S.
Elfin, Acting Master Augustus F. Thompson; were destroyed after an
engagement with Confederate batteries off Johnsonville, Ten., along
with several transport steamers and a large quantity of supplies.
(www.multied.com/navy/cwnavalhistory/November1864.html)
1864 Nov 8, President Abraham
Lincoln was re-elected with Andrew Johnson as his vice-president.
Lincoln won with 55% of the popular vote.
(HN, 11/6/98)(SFC, 12/21/98, p.A3)(ON, 12/03, p.4)
1864 Nov 9, Sherman designed his
"March to the Sea."
(MC, 11/9/01)
1864 Nov
10, Kingston, Ga., was burned as the first act of Sherman's March to
Sea. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman had made the city his headquarters
as he planned to lay waste the south over the next six weeks.
(www.ourgeorgiahistory.com/chronpop/2606)
1864 Nov
11, Sherman's troops destroyed Rome, Georgia. Gen. Sherman (1820-1891)
ordered Gen. John Murray Corse’s (1835-1893) troops to destroy Rome,
Georgia, and “everything that could be useful to an enemy.”
(www.civilwarhome.com/shermangeorgia.htm)
1864 Nov 15, Union Major General
William T. Sherman’s troops set fires that destroyed much of Atlanta.
(HN, 11/15/98)
1864 Nov 15, 1st US mines school
opened in the basement of Columbia University, NY.
(MC, 11/15/01)
1864 Nov 16, Union Gen. William T.
Sherman and his troops departed Atlanta and began their "March to the
Sea" during the Civil War.
(AP, 11/1697)(HN, 11/16/98)
1864 Nov 19, Confederate commander
Nathan Bedford Forrest joined Gen. Hood at Gunter’s Landing on the
Tennessee River in northern Alabama.
(AH, 10/02, p.41)
1864 Nov 21, Confederate General
John Bell Hood launched the Franklin-Nashville Campaign into Tennessee
from northern Alabama. Hood led the Army of the Tennessee in its
offensive into Tennessee, which was decisively broken in the battles of
Franklin and Nashville. Hood, a graduate of West Point, had been in the
U.S. Cavalry until the Civil War broke out. He was seriously wounded
attacking Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg and later
lost a leg at Chickamauga in September of that year. In 1864, he was
appointed a Lieutenant General under Joseph E. Johnston‘s command in
defense of Atlanta. In July, Confederate president Jefferson Davis put
Hood in command who promptly attacked Sherman‘s Union army and was
repulsed. Hood then attempted a long march to the north and west to
assault Sherman‘s rear and ran into Union Army of the Cumberland. The
November Battle of Franklin and December Battle of Nashville decisively
defeated Hood‘s Army which was harassed and almost destroyed in its
retreat. Hood‘s own request to end his command was granted the
following month. After the war he lived in New Orleans.
(HNQ,
11/4/00)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin-Nashville_Campaign)
1864 Nov 21-22, Battle at
Griswoldville, Georgia.
(MC, 11/21/01)
1864 Nov 22, Union General O.
Howard ordered plunderers shot to death.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1864 Nov 22, Battle at
Griswoldville, Georgia, ended after 650 casualties.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1864 Nov 23-25, The Battle at
Ball's Ferry, Georgia, left 30 casualties.
(MC, 11/23/01)
1864 Nov 24, Henri
Toulouse-Lautrec, French post-impressionist painter, was born.
(HN, 11/24/98)
1864 Nov 25, A Confederate plot to
burn NYC failed.
(MC, 11/25/01)
1864 Nov 25, Confederates
retreated at Sandersville, Georgia.
(MC, 11/25/01)
1864 Nov 26, Skirmish at Sylvan
Brutal and Waynesboro, Georgia.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1864 Nov 26, Colonel Kit Carson
led the attack in the first Battle of Adobe Walls. Carson, leading a
column of 335 officers and men of the 1st New Mexico Volunteer Cavalry,
surprised an encampment of Kiowa Indians on the site of adobe buildings
on the South Canadian River in Texas. After routing the Kiowa, Carson’s
forces were counterattacked by hundreds of Comanches from nearby
villages and forced to retreat.
(HNQ, 9/25/98)
1864 Nov 27, 2nd day of Battles at
Waynesboro, Georgia.
(MC, 11/27/01)
1864 Nov 28, 3rd day of Battles at
Waynesboro and Jones's Plantation, Georgia.
(MC, 11/28/01)
1864 Nov 28, Battle of New Creek,
WV, (Rosser's Raid, Ft. Kelly).
(MC, 11/28/01)
1864 Nov 29, 4th and last day of
skirmishes took place at Waynesboro, Georgia.
(MC, 11/29/01)
1864 Nov 29, The Battle of Spring
Hill, Ten., a prelude to the Battle of Franklin (aka Thomason's
Station), was fought. General John Bell Hood’s Army of Tennessee
marched from Columbia toward Spring Hill to isolate major portions of
Union forces from each other, hoping to defeat each in turn before they
could unite and overwhelm him.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Spring_Hill)
1864 Nov 29, In retaliation for an
Indian attack on a party of immigrants near Denver, 750 members of a
Colorado militia unit, led by Colonel John M. Chivington, attacked an
unsuspecting village of Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians camped on Sand
Creek in present-day Kiowa County. Some 300 [163] Indians were killed
in the attack, including women and children, many of whose bodies were
mutilated. Ten soldiers died in the attack. The Sand Creek Massacre, as
this incident came to be called, provoked a savage struggle between
Indians and the white settlers. It also generated two Congressional
investigations into the actions of Chivington and his men. The House
Committee on the Conduct of the War concluded that Chivington had
"deliberately planned and executed a foul and dastardly massacre which
would have disgraced the varied and savage among those who were the
victims of his cruelty."
(HNPD, 11/29/98)(HN, 11/29/98)(SFC, 9/15/00,
p.A9)(SSFC, 2/1/04, p.C13)
1864 Nov 30, Battle of Honey Hill,
SC, (Broad River). 96 were killed and 665 wounded.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1864 Nov 30, The Union won the
Battle of Franklin, Tenn., where John B. Hood ordered a disastrous
assault on Union earthworks. There were 7,700 casualties. Maj. Gen’l.
Patrick R. Cleburne, division commander in the Army of Tennessee, was
killed at the battle of Franklin. In early 1864 he had advocated the
abolition of slavery and the formal opening of the Confederate Army of
the Freedmen. In 2005 Robert Hicks authored the novel “The Widow of the
South,” set around the Battle of Franklin.
(HN, 11/30/98)(SFC, 11/29/02, p.A23)(AM, 11/04,
p.28)(SSFC, 9/4/05, p.F1)
1864 Dec 1, Skirmish at Millen
Brutal, Georgia.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1864 Dec 1, Franklin-Nashville
Campaign began.
(HN, 12/1/98)
1864 Dec 1, Raid at Stoneman:
Knoxville, Ten., to Saltville, Va.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1864 Dec 2, Major General
Grenville M. Dodge was named to replace General Rosecrans as Commander
of the Department of Missouri.
(HN, 12/2/98)
1864 Dec 2, Skirmish at Rocky
Creek Church, Georgia.
(MC, 12/2/01)
1864 Dec 3, Major General William
Tecumseh Sherman met up with some resistance from Confederate troops at
Thomas Station on his march to the sea.
(HN, 12/3/98)
1864 Dec 4, Battle of
Waynesborough (Brier Creek) Ga.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1864 Dec 4, Romanian Jews were
forbidden to practice law.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1864 Dec 5, Confederate General
Hood sent Nathan Bedford Forrest’s cavalry and a division of infantry
towards Murfreesboro, Tenn.
(HN, 12/5/98)
1864 Dec 10, General Sherman's
armies reached Savannah and a 12 day siege began.
(MC, 12/10/01)
1864 Dec 13, Battle of Ft.
McAllister, Ga.
(MC, 12/13/01)
1864 Dec 15, The battle at
Nashville began.
(HN, 12/15/98)
1864 Dec 16, Union forces under
General George H. Thomas routed Confederate forces under Gen. Hood at
the battle at Nashville, Tenn. There were some 4,400 casualties.
(HFA, ‘96, p.20)(HN, 12/16/98)(AH, 10/02, p.43)
1864 Dec 20, Confederate forces
evacuated Savannah, Ga., as Union Gen. William T. Sherman continued his
"March to the Sea."
(AP, 12/20/97)
1864 Dec 20-27, Battle of Ft.
Fisher, NC.
(MC, 12/20/01)
1864 Dec 22, During the Civil War,
Gen’l. Sherman telegraphed Pres. Lincoln from Georgia, saying: "I beg
to present to you, as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah with 150
guns and plenty of ammunition." In 2008 Noah Andre Trudeau authored
“Southern Storm: Sherman’s March to the Sea.”
(SFEC,11/30/97, p.T4)(AP, 12/22/97)(WSJ, 8/4/08,
p.A11)
1864 Dec, In the 1864 Harper's
Weekly Christmas issue, Thomas Nast drew Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson
Davis and Robert E. Lee along with his traditional Santa Claus. The
Santa Claus created by Nast for the 1862 Christmas issue of Harper's
Weekly, played a prominent role in all the wartime holiday centerfolds
and annual Christmas issues except the 1864 illustration "The Union
Christmas Dinner." In that image Abraham Lincoln is pictured welcoming
Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee back into the Union, with Santa
Claus, his sleigh and reindeer appearing in silhouette before a rising
moon behind the word Christmas.
(HNQ, 12/24/98)
1864 Fitz Hugh Lane, American
landscape artist, painted "Brace’s Rock, Brace’s Cove."
(WSJ, 3/21/02, p.A20)
1864 Composer Eugen D'Albert was
born in Glasgow. He considered himself a German and set only German
text in his works, which included his Cello Concerto and the operas
"Tiefland" and the 1916 "Die Toten Augen" (The Dead Eyes).
(SFEC, 1/30/00, DB p.33)
1864 Gustave Moreau, French
painter, created his work "Oedipus and the Sphinx." His students
included Georges Rouault, Albert Marqyet, and Henri Matisse.
(WSJ, 6/1/99, p.A20)
1864 In 1994 Prof. Jenny Franchot
(d.1998 at 45) of UC Berkeley published "Road to Rome: The Antebellum
Protestant Encounter with Catholicism." Franchot specialized in
American literature before 1865.
(SFC, 10/17/98, p.C2)
1864 Henry David Thoreau authored
“The Maine Woods” (1864), based on 3 previous visits to Maine in 1846,
1853 and 1857.
(SSFC, 7/29/07,
p.G8)(http://thoreau.eserver.org/mewoods.html)
1864 Jules Verne wrote "Journey to
the Center of the Earth." It was made into a film in 1959.
(SFEC, 11/17/96, BR p.4)(WSJ, 9/10/99, p.W11C)
1864 The most popular song of the
year was "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground."
(NH, 10/98, p.16)
1864 Tchaikovsky composed the
overture "The Storm."
(WSJ, 8/11/98, p.A16)
1864 Frederick Olmsted designed
the Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, Ca.
(SFC, 7/6/99, p.C1)
1864 The Clemens House was built
in Carson City, Nev., by Orion Clemens, brother of author Samuel
Clemens, better known as Mark Twain. Orion served as the first and only
Territorial Secretary (1861-1864), and at times, acting governor of the
Nevada Territory.
(SSFC, 11/19/06,
p.F10)(www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/nevada/ori.htm)
1864 Pope Pius IX issued the
encyclical "Quanta cura," which included a syllabus of 70 errors in
contemporary beliefs. The Syllabus of Errors included 80 negative
points condemning modern ideas such as freedom of speech and religion
and separation of church and state.
(PTA, 1980, p.510)(SFC, 9/1/00, p.D4)
1864 In Connecticut the West
Cornwall Bridge was built over the Housatonic River. The covered bridge
connected the 2 rural communities of Sharon and Cornwall.
(SSFC, 1/7/07, p.G10)
1864 The Knights of Pythias, a
secret fraternal order for philanthropic purposes, was founded in
Washington, DC.
(AHD, 1971, p.724)
1864 Congress banned private
coinage but private paper currency was still allowed.
(SFEC, 7/5/98, Par p.17)
1864 Congress gave to California
the lands known as Yosemite with the understanding that the state would
preserve them for public enjoyment.
(SFEC, 10/18/98, p.T4)
1864 The Geneva Convention
initially met to improve the lot of the wounded and sick of Armies in
the field and later added revisions. It established a code of conduct
for the treatment in wartime of the sick and wounded and prisoners of
war. It also said that an occupying power must guarantee the protection
of civilians in the area it occupies.
(WSJ, 2/26/96, p.A-10)(SFC, 4/11/97, p.A12)
1864 The Confederate War Dept.
organized the Indian tribes of eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas
into the Indian Division. Cherokee Gen’l. Stand Watie commanded the
Cherokee Mounted Rifles.
(WSJ, 6/9/97, p.A19)
1864 Union General William
Tecumseh Sherman surrounded and burned Atlanta, Georgia. The city was a
Confederate supply depot with a population of around 10,000, 1/10 the
size of New Orleans.
(WSJ, 4/9/96, p.A-1)(WSJ, 8/9/96, p.A10)
1864 The Fugitive Slave Act of
1850 was repealed.
(SFC, 2/21/97, p.A25)
1864 A federal law permitted any
woman to divorce her husband if he was in the military.
(SFEC, 6/28/98, Z1 p.8)
1864 The US Congress pushed
Idaho’s northeastern border back to the Bitterroot Mountains after
Sidney Edgerton of the Idaho Territory went to Washington with $2,000
in gold. Edgerton wound up as the territorial governor of newly created
Montana.
(WSJ, 5/31/08, p.W9)
1864 Ruel C. Gridley (d.1870),
owner of the Gridley Store in Austin, Nevada, lost an election bet and
had to carry a 50 lb. sack of flour the length of Austin to the tune of
“John Brown’s Body.” The sack was auctioned and the proceeds went to
the Sanitary Fund, a forerunner to the Red Cross, to help relieve
suffering created by the Civil War. The sack was resold many times and
soon other towns called for a similar auction. The last auction was at
the St. Louis World’s Fair.
(ACC, 2004)
1864 Oregon adopted its first
death penalty.
(SFC, 9/6.96, p.A11)
1864 Grover Cleveland, a lawyer
and politician in Buffalo, New York, dodged the draft by provided a
substitute when he was drafted. Andrew Johnson was a brigadier general
of volunteers before becoming a military governor and then vice
president. James Garfield began as a lieutenant colonel and rose to
become a major general before resigning upon being elected to Congress
in 1863. Benjamin Harrison started as a second lieutenant in the 70th
Indiana eventually mustering out as a brevet brigadier general in 1865.
William McKinley enlisted as a private in 1861 and was mustered out a
brevet major four years later.
(HNQ, 8/4/00)
1864 Hertwig and Co. of Thuringia,
Germany, introduced ceramic figurines called Snow Babies made from
bisque (unglazed clay) covered with crushed bisque “snowflakes.” The
first Snow Babies had been made of sugar candy and used as Christmas
decorations.
(SFC, 9/12/07, p.G7)
1864-1865 Army Col. Kit Carson, directed by Brig.
Gen. James Carleton, forced the move of some 9,000 Dineh Navajo from
Canyon de Chelly in Arizona to the Bosque Redondo reservation near Fort
Sumner, New Mexico. About half the people survived in what came to be
known as the Long Walk. In 2006 Hampton sides authored “Blood and
Thunder: An epic of the American West,” an account of the Navaho move.
(SFC, 1/3/97, p.A26)(SFEC, 5/4/97, z1 p.4)(SSFC,
1/7/01, p.T9)(WSJ, 10/7/06, p.P12)
1864 UC Medical Center in San
Francisco, Ca. was founded as Toland Medical College.
(SFC, 5/12/96, p.A-10)
1864 Adolphus Busch (1839-1913),
German immigrant married to Eberhard Anheuser’s daughter (1861), began
working at his father-in-law’s brewery in St. Louis.
(WSJ, 5/27/08,
p.A18)(www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/laborhall/2007_busch.htm)
1864 G.J. Bourdin patented the
first successful instant camera called the Dubroni.
(SFC, 6/12/96, Z1 p.5)
1864 The Enterprise Manufacturing
Co. was founded. They made many kinds of coffee grinders, meat
choppers, irons and other products.
(SFC, 3/3/99, Z1 p.4)
1864 Surveyors thought they found
the US Continental Divide and marked the boundary between Montana and
Idaho at the Bitterroot Range.
(SFEC, 10/6/96, zone 1 p.4)
1864 A meteorite was found near
Orgueil, France, that was later believed to be a fragment of a comet.
It was later found to show traces of amino acids.
(SFC, 12/19/01, p.A8)
1864 Henry Plummer, sheriff, was
hanged by vigilantes in Bannock, Montana. In 1920 Frank Bird Linderman
authored the novel, "Henry Plummer."
(HND, 7/21/98)(SFEC, 7/23/00, Par p.16)
1864 George Boole, Irish
mathematician and inventor of Boolean algebra, died.
(SFC, 12/2/97, p.C3)
1864 The Imperial State
Manufactory Vienna, a maker of porcelains since 1744, closed. The
royalty owned firm used the beehive or shield mark.
(SFC, 10/17/07, p.G2)
1864 In Britain Scottish servant
John Brown began to attend to Queen Victoria and drew the widowed queen
out of a severe depression. He remained with her until his death in
1883. The 1997 film "Mrs. Brown" suggested an affair between the two.
(SFEC, 7/13/97, Par p.2)
1864 Elie Abel Carriere wrote an
account in the French journal Revue Horticole of a journey to the beech
forest at Verzy, southeast of Reims, to see the monster beech, Fagus
sylvatica Tortuosa.
(NH, 6/96, p.45)
1864 In the Netherlands Gerard
Adriaan Heineken founded a beer brewery. In 2002 it was the world’s 3rd
largest brewery.
(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A22)
1864 In Sweden the Alfred Nobel
factory for the manufacture of nitroglycerin accidentally blew up,
killing Nobel’s youngest brother and four others.
(HNPD, 10/21/98)
c1864-1865 Following newspaper editor Horace
Greeley’s attempt to broker an end to the Civil War, President
Lincoln’s Secretary of Navy, Gideon Welles, said he had "found himself
involved in the meshes of his own frail net." Greeley attempted to act
as a go-between between the Lincoln administration and some Confederate
representatives waiting at Niagara Falls just over the Canadian border.
"I just thought I would let him go up and crack that nut for himself,"
Lincoln later reportedly said of the meddlesome editor.
(HNQ, 5/22/99)
1864-1900 Richard Hovey, US poet.
(WUD, 1994, p.689)
1864-1903 Martha Jane Canary (aka Calamity Jane)
skilled horsewoman and rifle shot. Calamity was a scout during the
Sioux campaign of 1876 and was known for getting into fights, heavy
drinking and prostitution. She and James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok
apparently worked together as outriders for a wagon train of
prostitutes on its way to the gold-mining town of Deadwood, South
Dakota.
(HNPD, 8/28/99)
1864-1903 Napa County was one of California’s leading
producers of cinnabar.
(WCG, 7/95, p.22)
1864-1910 Jules Renard, French educator and author:
"Talent is like money; you don’t have to have some to talk about it."
(AP, 4/16/97)
1864-1926 Israel Zangwill, English dramatist: "Take
from me the hope that I can change the future, and you will send me
mad."
(AP, 4/9/00)
1864-1933 Fred Holland Day, photographer, publisher
and book-collector. He was a leading representative of the New School
of American Photography. He did a photo documentation of all the places
that Keats had inhabited or visited in his life. He was a member of an
amateur society of Orientalist called the Visionists and helped produce
the group’s weekly art journal, The Mahogany Tree. He published works
by William Butler Yeats, Walter Pater and Stephen Crane in his firm
Copeland & Day. Also published were John Lane’s anthology The
Yellow Book, the bible for decadents, and Oscar Wilde’s Salome with
illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley
(Civilization, July-Aug. 1995, p.40-47)
1864-1936 Miguel de Unamuno, Spanish philosopher: "La
vida es duda, y la fe sin la duda es solo muerte." (Life is doubt, and
faith without doubt is nothing but death.)
(AP, 2/4/01)
1865 Jan 4, The New York Stock
Exchange opened its first permanent headquarters at 10-12 Broad Street
near Wall Street in NYC. The Corinthian-style structure would serve the
Exchange until 1903 when more spacious quarters opened at 18 Broad
Street.
(WSJ, 1/11/99,
p.R43)(http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/jan04.html)
1865 Jan 7, Cheyenne and Sioux
warriors attacked Julesburg, Colo., in retaliation for the Sand Creek
Massacre.
(HN, 1/7/99)
1865 Jan 10, Sinclair Lewis
(d.1951), American author of 23 novels and 3 plays, was born in Sauk
Centre, Minn.
(HNQ, 5/18/98)(WSJ, 1/18/02, p.W8)
1865 Jan 11, Battle of Beverly, WV.
(MC, 1/11/02)
1865 Jan 13-14, Union fleet bombed
Fort Fisher, NC.
(AH, 2/05, p.16)
1865 Jan 15, Union troops captured
Fort Fisher at Wilmington, North Carolina. It was the last major
Confederate port open to blockade runners.
(AH, 2/05, p.16)
1865 Jan 16, General Sherman began
a march through the Carolinas. During the march Sherman issued Field
Order No. 15 that set aside land, "40 acres and a mule," in Georgia and
South Carolina for freed slaves.
(HN, 1/16/99)(SFC, 6/20/00, p.A6)(SFC, 4/5/02, p.H4)
1865 Jan 16, Charles (19) and
Michael de Young (17) started a free theater-program sheet in SF called
The Daily Dramatic Chronicle. Early quarters were at Clay and
Montgomery. They borrowed a $20 gold piece from Capt. William Hinkley,
who owned the building where they lived, to start the paper.
(SFC, 7/18/96, p.A1)(SFEC, 3/8/98, BR p.1)(SFC,
8/7/99, p.A1)(SFC, 1/16/09, Extra p.1)
1865 Jan 17, The 170-foot sailing
ship Sir John Franklin, a clipper out of Baltimore with 16 people
aboard, wrecked near Pescadero, Ca. Capt. Desperaux and 11 crew members
were lost.
(SFC, 8/10/02, p.A13)(Ind, 8/10/02, 5A)
1865 Jan 18, Battle of Ft.
Moultrie, SC.
(MC, 1/18/02)
1865 Jan 23, General John Bell
Hood was relieved of his command of the Army of Tennessee.
(AH, 10/02, p.38)
1865 Jan 24, A Confederate fleet
attempted to raid City Point, Va. Most of the fleet ran aground. Two
ironclads make a desperate attempt to push through to the supply
center. One gunboat was sunk and the other mysteriously turns around.
(www.qmfound.com/citypt.htm)
1865 Jan 31, The House of
Representatives approved a constitutional amendment (121-24) abolishing
slavery. It would become the 13th amendment to the US Constitution. It
was ratified on December 6.
(www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/13thamendment.html)(WSJ, 7/16/01,
p.A10)
1865 Jan 31, Gen. Robert E. Lee
was named general-in-chief of the Confederate armies.
(AP, 1/31/98)
1865 Feb 1, Lincoln's home state
of Illinois became the first to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment
abolishing slavery throughout the United States. President Abraham
Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation two years earlier, but
it had not effectively abolished slavery in all of the states--it did
not apply to slave-holding border states that had remained with the
Union during the Civil War. After the war, the sentiment about blacks
was mixed even among anti-slavery Americans: some considered Lincoln's
address too conservative and pushed for black suffrage, arguing that
blacks would remain oppressed by their former owners if they did not
have the power to vote. After the amendment was passed, the Freedmen's
Bureau was created to help blacks with the problems they would
encounter while trying to acquire jobs, education and land of their
own.
(HNPD, 2/1/99)
1865 Feb 2, Confederate raider
William Quantrill and his bushwackers robbed citizens, burned a
railroad depot and stole horses from Midway, Kentucky.
(HN, 2/2/01)
1865 Feb 3, The Hampton Roads
Conference was attended by President Abraham Lincoln and the Vice
President of the Confederacy, Alexander H. Stephens, in an attempt to
end the American Civil War. The four-hour meeting aboard the Union
steamboat River Queen anchored in Hampton Roads in Virginia, also
included Lincoln's Secretary of State, William H. Seward,
Confederate Assistant Secretary of War John Campbell and Senator R.M.T.
Hunter. Lincoln‘s peace offer required rebel states to return to the
Union, accept the freedom of their slaves and to disband their army.
Even though military defeat was imminent, the Confederate
representatives did not have the authority to accept any peace offer
without a guarantee of independence for the Confederacy, therefore, no
agreement was reached.
(HFA, ‘96, p.22)(AP, 2/3/97)(HNQ, 2/5/00)
1865 Feb 4, Robert E. Lee was
named commander-in-chief of Confederate Army.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1865 Feb 5, Three-day Battle of
Hatcher's Run, Va., began.
(HN, 2/5/99)
1865 Feb 7, John Henry Winder
(b.1800), US Confederate brig-gen and provost marshal, died. He was in
charge of all Union prisoners east of the Mississippi River.
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USACWwinder.htm)
1865 Feb 8, Confederate raider
William Quantrill and men attacked a group of Federal wagons at New
Market, Kentucky.
(HN, 2/8/00)
1865 Feb 8, Martin Robinson Delany
became the 1st black major in US army.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1865 Feb 9, Wilson Bentley
(d.1931) was born on a farm near Jericho, Vermont. His interest in snow
flakes led him to make the 1st photographs of snow crystals on Jan 15,
1885.
(ON, 11/04, p.4)
1865 Feb 9, Mrs. [Beatrice]
Patrick Campbell, actress (Pygmalion), was born in England.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1865 Feb 12, Henry Highland
Garnet, became the 1st black to speak in US House of Reps.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1865 Feb 13, The Confederacy
approved the recruitment of slaves as soldiers, as long as the approval
of their owners was gained.
(HN, 2/13/98)
1865 Feb 16, Columbia, S.C.,
surrendered to Federal troops.
(HN, 2/16/98)
1865 Feb 17, The South Carolina
capital city, Columbia, was half destroyed by fire as the Confederates
evacuated and Union forces under Major General William Tecumseh Sherman
marched through. It's not known which side set the blaze. Sherman had
made a swift and steady advance through Georgia and South Carolina, and
by late February 1865, his army was approaching Charlotte, North
Carolina.
(HN, 2/17/98)(AP, 2/17/98)
1865 Feb 17, Union forces regained
Fort Sumter.
(HFA, ‘96, p.22)
1865 Feb 17-18, Battle of
Charleston SC.
(MC, 2/17/02)
1865 Feb 18, Union troops forced
the Confederates to abandon Fort Anderson, N.C.
(HN, 2/18/98)
1865 Feb 18, Battle of Ft.
Moultrie, SC.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1865 Feb 18, Columbia, SC, was
evacuated and Sherman's troops burned the city.
(MC, 2/18/02)
1865 Feb 20, MIT was formed as the
1st US collegiate architectural school.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1865 Feb 22, Federal troops
captured Wilmington, N.C. (Fort Anderson).
(HN, 2/22/98)(MC, 2/22/02)
1865 Feb 22, Tennessee adopted a
new constitution abolishing slavery.
(HN, 2/22/98)(AP, 2/22/99)
1865 Feb 25, General Joseph E.
Johnston replaced John Bell Hood as Commander of the Confederate Army
of Tennessee. Arthur Fremantle made a breathtaking tour of the
Confederacy. Within three months he had met most of the top Confederate
leaders, including Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, Joseph Johnston and
Jefferson Davis.
(HN, 2/25/98)
1865 Feb 27, Confederate raider
William Quantrill and his bushwhackers attacked Hickman, Kentucky,
shooting women and children.
(HN, 2/27/00)
1865 Feb 27, A Civil War skirmish
took place near Sturgeon, Missouri.
(MC, 2/27/02)
1865 Feb, Major General William
Tecumseh Sherman had made a swift and steady advance through Georgia
and South Carolina, and by late February 1865, his army was approaching
Charlotte, North Carolina.
(HN, 2/8/98)
1865 Mar 1, Anna Paulowna Romanova
(70), great monarch of Russia, died.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1865 Mar 2, Freedman's Bureau was
founded for Black Education.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1865 Mar 2, General Lee proposed
peace to Grant. President Abraham Lincoln rejected Confederate General
Robert E. Lee's plea for peace talks, demanding unconditional surrender.
(HFA, ‘96, p.22)(HN, 3/2/99)
1865 Mar 2, General Early's army
was defeated at Waynesborough, Va.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1865 Mar 2, British newspaper
"Morning Chronicle" began publishing.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1865 Mar 3, US Bureau of Refugees,
Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands was established to help destitute free
blacks.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1865 Mar 4, President Lincoln was
inaugurated for his 2nd term as President. It was held at the Patent
Office, the site of a military hospital.
(SC, 3/4/02)(WSJ, 2/12/04, p.D12)
1865 Mar 4, Confederate congress
approved the final design of "official flag."
(SC, 3/4/02)
1865 Mar 6, President Lincoln's
2nd Inaugural Ball was held.
(MC, 3/6/02)
1865 Mar 6, The last Confederate
victory of the Civil War occurred at Natural Bridge crossing near
Tallahassee, Fla., when the forces of Union Gen’l. John Newton were
routed by entrenched southerners.
(HT, 3/97, p.10)(HN, 3/6/98)
1865 Mar 7-10, Battles were fought
around Kingston, NC.
(MC, 3/7/02)
1865 Mar 8, Frederick William
Goudy, US printer, type designer, was born.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1865 Mar 8, Battle of Kingston, NC
(Wilcox's ridge, Wise's Forks).
(MC, 3/8/02)
1865 Mar 10, Battle of Monroe's
Crossroads, NC.
(MC, 3/10/02)
1865 Mar 11, General Sherman and
his forces occupied Fayetteville, N.C. Union General William Sherman
considered Judson Kilpatrick, his cavalry chief, "a hell of a damn
fool." At Monroe’s Cross Roads, N.C., his carelessness and disobedience
of orders proved Sherman’s point.
(HN, 3/11/98)
1865 Mar 13, Lt. Col. William M.
Graham was given a brevet brigadier generalcy. Unfortunately, Graham
had been killed in action some days before--6,396 days to be
precise--at the head of the old U.S. 11th Infantry at the Battle of
Molino del Rey on August 8, 1847.
(HNQ, 4/1/01)
1865 Mar 15, Lincoln delivered his
Second Inaugural Address. In 2002 Ronald C. White Jr. authored
"Lincoln’s Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural."
(HFA, ‘96, p.28)(WSJ, 2/8/02, p.W9)
1865 Mar 16, Union troops pushed
past Confederate blockers at the Battle of Averasborough, N.C., and
left 1,500 causalities.
(HN, 3/16/99)(MC, 3/16/02)
1865 Mar 18, The Congress of the
Confederate States of America adjourned for the last time.
(HN, 3/18/98)
1865 Mar 18, Battle of Wilson's
raid to Selma, AL.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1865 Mar 19, Battle of
Bentonville: Confederates retreated from Greenville, NC. [see Mar 20-21]
(MC, 3/19/02)
1865 Mar 20, Battle of
Bentonville, N.C.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1865 Mar 20, Michigan authorized
workers' cooperatives.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1865 Mar 21, The Battle of
Bentonville, N.C. ended, marking the last Confederate attempt to stop.
Union General William Sherman considered Judson Kilpatrick, his cavalry
chief, ‘a hell of a damn fool.’ At Monroe’s Cross Roads, N.C., his
carelessness and disobedience of orders proved Sherman’s point.
(HN, 3/21/98)
1865 Mar 22, Theophile Ysaye,
composer, was born.
(MC, 3/22/02)
1865 Mar 22, Raid at Wilson's:
Chickasaw, AL, to Macon, GA.
(MC, 3/22/02)
1865 Mar 23, General Sherman and
Cox's troops reached Goldsboro, NC.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1865 Mar 25, Battle of Mobile, AL
(Spanish Fort, Fort Morgan, Fort Blakely).
(MC, 3/25/02)
1865 Mar 25, Battle of Bluff
Spring, FL.
(MC, 3/25/02)
1865 Mar 25, Confederate forces
captured Fort Stedman during the siege of Petersburg, Va., but were
forced to withdraw by counterattacking Union troops.
(AP, 3/25/97)(HN, 3/24/01)
1865 Mar 27, Siege of Spanish
Fort, AL. It was captured by Federals.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1865 Mar 29, Battle of Quaker
Road, Va.
(MC, 3/29/02)
1865 Mar 29-Apr 9, The Appomattox
campaign in Virginia left 7582 killed.
(MC, 3/29/02)
1865 Mar 31, Battle of Boydton, VA
(White Oaks Roads, Dinwiddie Court House).
(MC, 3/31/02)
1865 Mar 31, Gen. Pickett moved to
5 Forks, abandoning the defense of Petersburg.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1865 Mar, Thomas Sutherland of
Scotland founded the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC)
to finance trade in the Far East. It established the Shanghai branch on
April 3, 1865.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_and_Shanghai_Banking_Corporation)
1865 Apr 1, At the Battle of Five
Forks in Petersburg, Va., Gen. Robert E. Lee began his final offensive.
(HN, 4/1/98)(OTD)
1865 Apr 1-9, Battle at Blakely
Alabama.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1865 Apr 2, Confederate President
Davis and most of his Cabinet fled the Confederate capital of Richmond,
Va. Grant broke Lee’s line at Petersburg. President Jefferson Davis
moved his government headquarters to Danville, Va., when its previous
capital, Richmond, became engulfed in flames. Though it would have been
safer to secure a location further south, Danville was naturally
protected by the Dan and Staunton rivers, and it was in close proximity
to Gen. Robert E. Lee’s army to the north and Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s
army to the south. The Piedmont Railroad connected Danville and
Greensboro, N.C. and offered easy access to supplies.
(AP, 4/2/97)(HN, 4/2/98)(HNQ, 11/1/01)
1865 Apr 2, Battle of Petersburg,
Va. (Ft Gregg, Sutherland's Station).
(MC, 4/2/02)
1865 Apr 2, Battle of Ft. Blakely,
AL. and Selma, AL.
(MC, 4/2/02)
1865 Apr 2, Ambrose Powell Hill
(39), Confederate general, was killed in action.
(MC, 4/2/02)
1865 Apr 3, Union forces captured
the Confederate capital of Richmond, Va.
(HFA, ‘96, p.28)(AP, 4/3/97)(HN, 4/3/98)
1865 Apr 3, Battle at Namozine
Church, Virginia (Appomattox Campaign).
(MC, 4/3/02)
1865 Apr 4, Lee's army arrived at
the Amelia Courthouse.
(MC, 4/4/02)
1865 Apr 5, As the Confederate
army approached Appomattox, it skirmished with Union army at Amelia
Springs and Paine's Cross Road.
(HN, 4/5/99)
1865 Apr 6, At the Battle of
Sayler's Creek, a third of Lee's army was cut off by Union troops
pursuing him to Appomattox. Skirmish at High Bridge, VA, (Appomattox).
(HN, 4/6/99)(MC, 4/6/02)
1865 Apr 6, Reuben B. Boston, US
and Confederate cavalry colonel, died in battle.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1865 Apr 7, Battle of Farmville,
VA.
(MC, 4/7/02)
1865 Apr 8, General Robert E.
Lee's retreat was cut off near Appomattox Court House. Lee requested to
meet with Gen Ulysses Grant to discuss possible surrender.
(HN, 4/8/98)(MC, 4/8/02)
1865 Apr 9, Erich Ludendorff,
German general during World War I, was born.
(HN, 4/9/99)
1865 Apr 9, Confederate Gen.
Robert E. Lee surrendered to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court
House, Virginia, and ended the Civil War. A lifelong friend and trusted
aide of Ulysses S. Grant, Seneca Indian Ely Parker was at his general’s
side at the surrender at Appomattox. The Union 20th Maine Infantry Unit
was designated as one of the regiments to receive the surrender of
Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. One in four Southern men of military
age died vs. one in ten for the Yankees. In 1998 Bevin Alexander
published "Robert E. Lee’s Civil War." In 2001 Jay Winik authored
"April 1865: the Month That Saved America."
(A&IP, p.92)(AP, 4/9/97)(WSJ, 4/2/98, p.A20)(HN,
4/9/98)(WSJ, 7/24/98, p.W10)(WSJ, 4/2/01, p.A20)
1865 Apr 9, Federals captured Ft.
Blakely, Alabama.
(MC, 4/9/02)
1865 Apr 10, At Appomattox Court,
Va, General Robert E. Lee issued Gen Order #9, his last orders to the
Army of Northern Virginia. Seneca Indian Ely Parker was at his
general's side at Appomattox. In 2001 William C. Davis authored "An
Honorable Defeat."
(HN, 4/10/99)(WSJ, 6/13/01, p.A18)(MC, 4/10/02)
1865 Apr 11, Lincoln urged a
spirit of generous conciliation during reconstruction.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1865 Apr 11, Battle of Mobile,
AL., evacuated by Confederates.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1865 Apr 13, Union forces under
Gen. Sherman began their devastating march through Georgia. Sherman's
troops took Raleigh, NC.
(HN, 4/13/98)(MC, 4/13/02)
1865 Apr 14, On the evening of
Good Friday, just after 10 p.m., Pres. Lincoln was shot and
mortally wounded by John Wilkes Booth while attending the comedy "Our
American Cousin" at Ford's Theater in Washington DC. Southern
sympathizer John Wilkes Booth burst into the presidential box and shot
Lincoln behind the ear. Booth shouted out “sic semper tyrannis” (thus
always to tyrants), Virginia’s state motto, after shooting Pres.
Lincoln. He leaped to the stage, breaking his left leg on impact, and
escaped through a side door. Lincoln was carried to a nearby house
where he remained unconscious until his death at 7:22 the following
morning. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, who had kept vigil at
Lincoln's bedside, said, "Now he belongs to the ages." As I would not
be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of
democracy.”
(V.D.-H.K.p.277)(AP, 4/14/97)(AP, 4/14/98)(HNPD,
4/14/00)(WSJ, 10/13/06, p.W13)
1865 Apr 14, A 2nd assassin
stabbed the Sec. of State 5 times. George Atzerodt, a 3rd assassin for
the vice president, got cold feet.
(SSFC, 4/8/01, Par p.12)(WSJ, 2/2/05, p.B1)
1865 Apr 14, Mobile, Alabama, was
captured.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1865 Apr 15, President Lincoln
died, several hours after he was shot at Ford’s Theater in Washington
by John Wilkes Booth. Andrew Johnson, Vice-President under Lincoln,
became the 17th President (1865-1869) of the US upon the assassination.
The first Mourning Stamp was issued after his assassination, a 15-cent
black commemorative. In 1999 Allen C. Guelzo authored "Abraham Lincoln:
Redeemer President," an intellectual biography. In 2002 William Lee
Miller authored "Lincoln’s Virtues: An Ethical Biography." In 2004
Ronald C. White Jr. authored “The Eloquent President.” In 2005 Doris
Kearns Goodwin authored “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of
Abraham Lincoln.” In 2006 Douglas L. Wilson authored “Lincoln’s Sword:
The Presidency and the Power of Woods.”
(http://condor.stcloudstate.edu/~brixr01/NYTAPR151865.html)(WSJ,
12/29/99, p.A16)(WSJ, 2/8/02, p.W9)(WSJ, 1/20/05, p.D9) (SSFC,
11/27/05, p.M3)(SFC, 11/27/06, p.C2)
1865 Apr 15, Otto von Bismarck was
elevated to earl.
(MC, 4/15/02)
1865 Apr 17, Mary Surratt was
arrested as a conspirator in the Lincoln assassination.
(HN, 4/17/98)
1865 Apr 18, Dr. Samuel A. Mudd
originally claimed to have never met Booth during his initial interview
with investigating detectives. Presidential assassin John Wilkes Booth,
injured and fleeing Ford's Theatre, had knocked on the door of Dr. Mudd
for help.
(HNQ, 8/26/01)
1865 Apr 18, Confederate Gen
Joseph Johnston surrendered to Gen W.T. Sherman in North Carolina.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1865 Apr 20, Chicago's Crosby
Opera House opened.
(MC, 4/20/02)
1865 Apr 21, Abraham Lincoln’s
funeral train left Washington.
(HN, 4/21/98)
1865 Apr 23, Union cavalry units
continued to skirmish with Confederate forces in Henderson, North
Carolina and Munsford Station, Alabama.
(HN, 4/23/99)
1865 Apr 23, Dedicated
Massachusetts abolitionist Silas Soule (b.1838) was shot and
killed near his home in Colorado by a soldier named Charles
Squires. It is thought that Squires was hired by men loyal to Col. John
Chivington to kill Soule. Soule's testimony against Chivington about
the 1864 massacre at Sand Creek led, in part, the United States
Congress to refuse the Army's request for thousands of men for a
general war against the Native Americans of the Plains States.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silas_Soule)
1865 Apr 26, Battle of Ft.
Tobacco, VA.
(MC, 4/26/02)
1865 Apr 26, Confederate Gen.
Joseph E. Johnston surrendered the Army of Tennessee at Durham, NC, to
Union Gen. W.T. Sherman. Sherman considered Judson Kilpatrick, his
cavalry chief, ‘a hell of a damn fool.’ At Monroe’s Cross Roads, N.C.,
his carelessness and disobedience of orders proved Sherman’s point.
(HN, 4/26/98)(MC, 4/26/02)
1865 Apr 26, John Wilkes Booth
(27) was tracked to a Virginia farm near Bowling Green, and shot in the
neck by federal troops when he tried to escape from a burning barn. At
some time prior to this Booth’s leg was operated on by Dr. Samuel Mudd,
ancestor of news commentator Roger Mudd, who obtained a presidential
pardon for Dr. Mudd’s financial ruin. Dr. Mudd served time at the Fort
Jefferson Prison in the Dry Tortugas. [see Apr 27]
(SFC, 6/7/96, p.A8)(WP, 6/29/96, p.A16)(AP, 4/26/98)
1865 Apr 27, John Wilkes Booth was
killed by Federal Cavalry in Virginia. In 2004 Michael W. Kauffman
authored “American Brutus.” In 2006 James L. Swanson authored “Manhunt:
The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer. [see Apr 26]
(HN, 4/27/98)(WSJ, 2/11/06, p.P10)(WSJ, 1/28/07,
p.P10)
1865 Apr 27, The steamer Sultana
caught fire and burned after one of its boilers exploded on the
Mississippi River near Memphis, Tenn., killing more than 1,400 paroled
Union prisoners on their way home. One account reported 1,547 people
dead. At least 1,238 of the 2,031 passengers, mostly former Union POWs,
were killed.
(AP, 4/27/97)(SFC, 3/13/99, p.E6)(HN, 4/27/99)(MC,
4/27/02)
1865 Apr 28, Giacomo Meyerbeer's
opera "L'Africaine," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1865 Apr 30-May 1, Gen Sherman's
"Haines's Bluff" at Snyder's Mill, Virginia.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1865 Apr, Henry James (1843-1916),
reportedly had a love relationship with Oliver Wendall Holmes, the
future US Supreme Court Justice.
(SFEC, 11/3/96, BR p.1)
1865 May 1, In Charleston, SC,
some 10,000 people paraded to a mass grave site of Union soldiers at a
former race track. This was likely the 1st large-scale US Memorial Day
event. [see May 5, 1866]
(SFC, 5/26/03, p.A1)
1865 May 2, President Johnson
offered a $100,000 reward for the capture of Confederate President
Jefferson Davis.
(HN, 5/2/98)
1865 May 3,
President Lincoln’s funeral train arrived in Springfield, Illinois.
(HN, 5/3/98)
1865 May 4, Abraham Lincoln was
buried in a temporary tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield,
Illinois.
(SFEC, 3/22/98,
p.T4)(www.state.il.us/HPA/hs/Tomb.htm)
1865 May 4, Battle of Mobile, AL.
[see Apr 11,14]
(MC, 5/4/02)
1865 May 9, August de Boeck,
composer, was born.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1865 May 10, Confederate Pres.
Jefferson Davis was captured by Union troops in Irwinville, Georgia.
(HN, 5/10/98)(AP, 5/10/08)
1865 May 12, The last land action
of the Civil War was fought at Palmito Ranch in Texas. It was a
Confederate victory.
(SC, Internet, 5/12/97)(HN, 5/12/02)
1865 May 21, C.J. Thomsen,
archaeologist who named the Stone, Iron and Bronze Ages, was born in
Denmark.
(MC, 5/21/02)
1865 May 23, The American flag was
flown at full staff over White House for the 1st time since Lincoln was
shot. Union Army's Grand Review began in Washington DC.
(MC, 5/23/02)
1865 May 25, Frederick Augustus
III, King of Saxon (1904-18), was born.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1865 May 25, John Raleigh Mott,
organizer (YMCA, Nobel 1946), was born.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1865 May 25, Pieter Zeeman, Dutch
physicist (Zeeman effect, Nobel 1902), was born.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1865 May 26, Arrangements were
made in New Orleans for the surrender of Confederate forces west of the
Mississippi. The last Confederate Army surrendered in Shreveport, La.
(AP, 5/26/97)(HN, 5/26/99)
1865 May 26, At the Battle of
Galveston, TX., Edmund Kirby Smith surrendered.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1865 May 29, Amnesty for the
Confederates was granted.
(HFA, ‘96, p.30)
1865 May, E.L. Godkin announced
the start of a new magazine called The Nation and asked William James
to be a contributor.
(WSJ, 10/17/96, p.A20)
1865 May, The Confederate prison
at Camp Sumter, Georgia, was shut down, but stories about it sparked
outrage in the North.
(AH, 10/02, p.71)
1865 Jun 2, At Galveston,
Confederate General Kirby-Smith surrendered the Trans-Mississippi
Department to Northern Forces.
(HN, 6/2/98)
1865 Jun 3, George V,
Saksen-Coburg [Windsor], King of Great Britain, was born.
(MC, 6/3/02)
1865 Jun 6, Confederate raider
William Quantrill (b.1837) died in Louisville, Ky., from a shot in the
spine he received escaping a Union patrol near Taylorsville, Kentucky.
(HN,
6/6/99)(www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/QQ/fqu3.html)
1865 Jun 9, Carl Nielsen, Danish
composer, was born.
(HN, 6/9/01)
1865 Jun 10, The opera "Tristan
und Isolde" by Richard Wagner premiered in Munich, Germany. Wagner had
begun the work in 1857.
(AP, 6/10/97)(WSJ, 3/12/99, p.W2)
1865 Jun 13, William Butler Yeats
(d.1939), Irish poet and playwright, was born to an Anglo-Irish family
in a Dublin suburb. He is best remembered for his poems "Byzantium" and
"Easter 1916." He won the Nobel Prize in 1923. The first volume of his
autobiography was "Reveries Over Childhood and Youth" (1915). Richard
Ellman published a biography in 1948. The book "W.B. Yeats: A Life,
Vol. 1: The Apprentice Mage 1865-1914," by R.F. Foster covered this
period of Yeats’ life. "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" is his best known
poem. "Too long a sacrifice / Can make a stone of the heart. / O when
may it suffice?"
(V.D.-H.K.p.365)(WSJ, 4/2397, p.A1)(AP, 4/29/98)(HN,
6/13/98)(SFEC, 8/8/99, p.T6)(MC, 6/13/02)
1865 Jun 17, Edmund Ruffin
(b.1794), Virginia-born secessionist, writer, committed suicide after
Confederacy defeat. For most of his life, Ruffin was a farmer and a
renowned agricultural reformer. Increasingly, however, he turned his
attention in the 1850s to politics, especially the defense of slavery
and secession. Plagued by ill health, family misfortunes, and the rapid
collapse of Confederate forces in 1865, Ruffin proclaimed "unmitigated
hatred to Yankee rule," and on June 17, 1865, at his estate of Redmoor,
in Amelia county, Virginia, he pulled the trigger on his silver-mounted
gun and joined other fallen Confederate soldiers, the casualty of what
some call the “last shot of the Civil War.” . His act, sometimes
considered the "last shot" of the Civil War, become identified with the
Confederacy's defeat and a symbol of the lost cause.
(www.famousamericans.net/edmundruffin/)
1865 Jun 19, Emancipation Day,
also known as Juneteenth, was the day that Union General Granger
informed Texas slaves that they were free. Blacks came to celebrate the
day as Juneteenth Freedom Day.
(SFEC, 6/21/98, p.D3)(SFC, 6/18/04, p.B2)
1865 Jun 23, Confederate General
Stand Watie, who was also a Cherokee chief, surrendered the last
sizable Confederate army at Fort Towson, in the Oklahoma Territory.
(WSJ, 6/9/97, p.A19)(HN, 6/23/98)
1865 Jun 26, Bernard Berenson, art
critic (Italian Painters of the Renaissance), was born.
(MC, 6/26/02)
1865 Jun 29, William E. Borah,
Republican senator from Idaho, proponent of the League of Nations, was
born.
(HN, 6/29/98)
1865 Jun 30, Eight alleged
conspirators in assassination of Lincoln were found guilty after
kangaroo court-martial and brutal treatment by military officers.
(MC, 6/30/02)
1865 Jul 2, Lili Braun, feminist,
socialist writer (Im Schatten Titanen), was born in Prussia.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1865 Jul 4, 1st edition of "Alice
in Wonderland" was published. English mathematician Charles Lutwidge
Dodgson is best known for writing the children’s book Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland under the pen name Lewis Carroll. Born in
1832, Also a skilled portrait photographer, Dodgson pioneered in the
art of photographing children.
(SFEM, 11/24/96, p.59)(HNQ, 6/12/98)(Maggio,
98)
1865 Jul 5, The US Secret Service
began operating under the Treasury Department. The Secret Service
Division began in Washington, D.C., to suppress counterfeit currency.
Chief William P. Wood was sworn in by Secretary of the Treasury Hugh
McCulloch.
(MC,
7/5/02)(http://www.ustreas.gov/usss/history.shtml)
1865 Jul 5, Great Britain imposed
world’s 1st maximum speed laws.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1865 Jul 5, William Booth founded
the Salvation Army in east London to serve the poor and homeless. [see
Jul 23]
(AP, 7/5/97)(SFC, 9/15/98, p.A9)
1865 Jul 7, The trap doors of the
scaffold in the yard of Washington’s Old Penitentiary were sprung, and
Mary Surratt, Lewis Paine, David Herold and George Atzerodt dropped to
their deaths. The four had been convicted of "treasonable conspiracy"
in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, and had learned that
they were to be hanged only a day before their execution. Shortly after
1 p.m. the prisoners were led onto the scaffold and prepared for
execution. The props supporting the platform were knocked away at about
2 p.m. Assassin John Wilkes Booth had been killed on April 26, 12 days
after Lincoln’s assassination. Other convicted conspirators—Edman
Spangler, Dr. Samuel Mudd, Samuel Arnold and Michael O’Laughlin—were
imprisoned.
(AP, 7/7/97)(HNPD, 7/7/98)
1865 Jul 8, C.E. Barnes of Lowell,
MA, patented the machine gun.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1865 Jul 13, Horace Greeley
advised his readers to "Go west young man."
(MC, 7/13/02)
1865 Jul 14, The Chickasaw Indian
Nation under Winchester Colbert was the last military force to
surrender in the Civil War.
(WSJ, 6/9/97, p.A19)
1865 Jul 14, Whymper, Hudson,
Croz, Douglas & Hadow became the 1st to climb Matterhorn.
(MC, 7/14/02)
1865 Jul 19, Charles Horance Mayo
(d.1939), American surgeon and co-founder of the Mayo Clinic Foundation
for Medical Education and Research, was born. "I have never known a man
who died from overwork, but many who died from doubt."
(HN, 7/19/98)(AP, 12/11/00)
1865 Jul 21, Wild Bill Hickok
killed gunman Dave Tutt in Springfield, Illinois, in the first formal
quick-draw duel.
(HN, 7/21/98)
1865 Jul 23, William Booth founded
the Salvation Army. [see Jul 5]
(HN, 7/23/98)
1865 Jul 25, Dr. James Barry
(b.1795), British military medical officer and senior inspector
general, died. It was soon revealed that Dr. Barry was likely a female.
In 2003 Rachel Holmes authored “Scanty Particulars: the Scandalous Life
and Astonishing Secret of Queen Victoria’s Most Eminent Military
Doctor.”
(NYTBR, 2/2/03,
p.21)(www.geocities.com/hotsprings/2615/medhist/barry.html)
1865 Jul 30, The worst US
steamship disaster occurred. The Brother Jonathon, a paddle wheel
steamer, sank off the coast of Northern California near Crescent City.
221 [166] people died after the ship hit a rock near Crescent City.
There were 19 survivors. The 220-foot, side-wheeled steamer was onroute
to Puget Sound and reportedly carried as much as $2 million in gold. In
the 1990s Deep Sea Research found and salvaged 1,207 gold coins from
the ship. California received 20% of the treasure and the rest was put
up for auction in 1999.
(HFA, '96, p.28)(SFC, 7/18/96, p.A18)(SFC, 6/10/97,
p.A4)(SFC, 4/23/98, p.A6)(SFC, 5/28/99, p.D7)(SSFC, 4/21/02, p.A27)
1865 Aug 2, Irving Babbitt,
founder of modern humanistic movement, was born.
(HN, 8/2/98)
1865 Aug 2, A trans Atlantic Cable
being laid by SS Great Eastern snapped and was lost.
(MC, 8/2/02)
1865 Aug 4, Blacks celebrate this
date as the day "on which Nicodemus’ master laid aside his whip." The
year is called the "Year of Jubilee."
(NH, 7/98, p.31)
1865 Aug 10, Alexander K.
Glazunov, composer (Chopiniana), was born in St. Petersburg, Russia.
(MC, 8/10/02)
1865 Aug 13, Ignaz Semmelweis
(47), Hungarian gynecologist, died. [see Jul 1, 1818]
(MC, 8/13/02)
1865 Aug 15, Sir Joseph Lister
discovered the antiseptic process. [see Sep 1]
(MC, 8/15/02)
1865 Aug 20, Pres. Johnson
proclaimed an end to the "insurrection" in Texas.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1865 Aug 31, The US Federal
government estimated the American Civil War had cost about
eight-billion dollars. Human costs have been estimated at more than
one-million killed or wounded.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1865 Aug, A national military
cemetery was dedicated at Andersonville, Georgia, by Clara Barton and
the Red Cross for the 13,000 men who died at Camp Sumter.
(AHHT, 10/02, p.22)
1865 Sep 1, Joseph Lister
performed his 1st antiseptic surgery.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1865 Sep 2, William Rowan
Hamilton, Ireland's greatest man of science who made contributions in
the study of optics and applications of algebra to geometry, died.
(Internet)
1865 Sep 3, Army commander in SC
ordered Freedmen's Bureau to stop seizing land.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1865 Sep 6, Russia forbade the use
of Latin letters in the Lithuanian language. Following the 1863
uprising the Czarist authorities prohibited the publication of
Lithuanian books in Roman letters. Books in Cyrillic were allowed but
not accepted by the people. Secret book couriers smuggled in Latin
lettered books until 1904.
(DrEE, 9/14/96, p.4)(LC, 1998, p.24)
1865 Sep 23, Emmuska Orczy
(d.1947), baroness and writer, was born in Tarnaors, Hungary. Her
family moved to London in 1880. Her books included "The Scarlet
Pimpernel" (1905).
(HN,
9/23/00)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroness_Orczy)
1865 Sep 24, James Cooke walked a
tightrope from the San Francisco Cliff House to Seal Rocks.
(MC, 9/24/01)
1865 Oct 1, Paul Abraham Dukas,
composer (Sorcerer's Apprentice), was born in Paris, France.
(MC, 10/1/01)
1865 Oct 2, Former Confederate
General Robert E. Lee became president of Washington and Lee University
in Virginia.
(MC, 10/2/01)
1865 Oct 5, George Calvert Yount
(b.1794), founder of Yountville, died in Napa Valley, Ca.
(www.sfmuseum.org/hist1/vets.html)
1865 Oct 8, Heinrich Wilhelm
Ernst, composer, died at 51.
(MC, 10/8/01)
1865 Oct 10, Raffaele Merry del
Val, Spanish cardinal, was born.
(MC, 10/10/01)
1865 Oct 10, John Wesley Hyatt
patented a new method for manufacturing billiard balls. He used melted
glue and cloth as an alternative to the ivory balls in use, but his 1st
products did not work well. [see Apr 6, 1869]
(MC, 10/10/01)(ON, 11/03, p.3)
1865 Oct 11, President Johnson
paroled CSA VP Alexander Stephens.
(MC, 10/11/01)
1865 Oct 25, The S.S. Republic was
carrying 59 passengers and 20,000 $20 gold coins from New York to New
Orleans when it sank in a hurricane off Savannah, Ga. All the
passengers boarded life boats and got off alive. In 2003 explorers
found the ship.
(AP, 8/17/03)(AP, 11/29/03)
1865 Oct, financial pressures
exerted negative market influences as noted in a letter to the
Economist.
(WSJ, 9/28/95, p.A-18)
1865 Nov 2, Warren Gamaliel
Harding, the 29th president of the United States (1921-29), was born
near Corsica, Ohio. Harding was owner and publisher of the Marion Star.
(SFEC, 1/12/97, zone 3 p.4)(AP, 11/2/97)(HNQ,
10/21/98)
1865 Nov 5, The Union Pacific
started construction on its western railroad from Omaha, Nebraska. The
city was originally Fort Atkinson.
(SFC, 7/8/96, p.D2)(SFC, 9/7/96, p.B4)
1865 Nov
10, Captain Henry Wirz (b.1822), commandment of Camp Sumter, Ga.,
(known as “Andersonville” by the North) was hanged outside Washington,
D.C., after being found guilty of war crimes.
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USACWwirz.htm)(AHHT,
10/02, p.22)
1865 Nov
11, Dr. Mary Edward Walker, 1st Army female surgeon, was awarded the
Medal of Honor by Pres. Andrew Johnson for her work as a field doctor,
for outstanding service at the Battle of Bull Run, the Battle of
Chickamauga, the Battle of Atlanta, and as a Confederate prisoner of
war in Richmond, Va. Her medal was rescinded 1917 along with 910
others, but restored by President Carter June 10, 1977.
(SFC, 7/17/96, p.E10)(HNQ,
3/12/02)(www.army.mil/cmh-pg/mohciv2.htm)
1865 Nov 13, PT Barnum's New
American museum opened in Bridgeport, Conn.
(MC, 11/13/01)
1865 Nov 18, Mark Twain's first
story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" was published
in the New York Saturday Press. Biologists later thought that the frog
named Dan’l Webster by Twain was a California red-legged frog and
currently endangered.
(SFC, 5/18/96, p.A-6)(HN, 11/18/00)
1865 Nov 26, "Alice in Wonderland"
by Lewis Carroll was published in US.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1865 Dec 8, Jean Sibelius
(d.1957), composer (Valse Triste, Finlandia), was born as Johan Julius
Christian in Tavastehus, Finland: "Pay no attention to what critics
say. There has never been set up a statue in honor of a critic.
(SFC,10/14/97,p.B3)(WUD,1994, p.1323)(SFEC,11/16/97,
Z1 p.5)(MC, 12/8/01)
1865 Dec 18 The Thirteenth
Amendment to the US Constitution, abolishing slavery, was declared in
effect.
(V.D.-H.K.p.276)(AP, 12/18/07)
1865 Dec 20, Maude Gonne, Irish
nationalist (Irish Joan of Arc), was born.
(MC, 12/20/01)
1865 Dec 24, Several veterans of
the Confederate Army formed a private social club in Pulaski, Tenn.,
called the Ku Klux Klan. In three short years the organization had
members in every former Confederate state and was responsible for
terrorist acts against Reconstruction.
(AP, 12/24/97)(HNQ, 8/4/99)
1865 Dec 25, Evangeline Cory
Booth, Salvation Army general (1904-34), was born.
(MC, 12/25/01)
1865 Dec 26, James H. Nason
(Mason) of Franklin, Mass., received a patent for a coffee percolator.
(AP, 12/26/97)(MC, 12/26/01)
1865 Dec 30, Rudyard Kipling
(d.1936), British author and poet, best known for "Jungle Book" and
"Soldiers Three," was born in Bombay, India. "There are only two
classes of mankind in the world -- doctors and patients." He won the
Nobel prize for literature in 1907.
(AP, 12/30/97)(HN, 12/30/98)(AP, 2/7/00)(MC,
12/30/01)
1865
Baroness Emmuska Orczy (d.1947), Hungarian-British author (“Scarlet
Pimpernel” 1905), was born in Tarna-Ors, Hungary.
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/orczy.htm)
1865 Frederic Bazille painted
"Beach at Sainte-Adresse."
(WSJ, 3/9/99, p.A20)
1865-1867 Honore Daumier created his painting "The
Strong Man" during this period.
(SFC, 3/24/00, p.B1)
1865 Edgar Degas painted the
portrait of his sister and brother-in-law: "Monsieur and Madame Edmondo
Morbilli."
(SFC, 10/13/97, p.E1)
1865 Edward Burne-Jones, painter,
began his "St. George and the Dragon" series.
(WSJ, 6/11/98, p.A20)
1865 Monet painted "A Cart on the
Snowy Road at Honfleur."
(SFC, 1/29/99, p.D6)
1865-1866 Edouard Manet painted "The Tragic Actor
(Rouviere as Hamlet)" about this time.
(WSJ, 4/16/03, p.D10)
1865 Belle Boyd (1844-1900),
former Confederate spy, authored her autobiography: “Belle Boyd in Camp
and Prison.”
(http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/boyd1/menu.html)(AH,
6/03, p.14)
1865 Bret Harte edited the 1st
collection of California poetry from newspaper clippings of poems
compiled by Mary Tingley of San Francisco.
(SSFC, 1/4/04, p.M1)
1865 Union Brig. Gen. August Kautz
authored "The 1865 Customs of Service: A Handbook for the Rank and File
of the Army.
(AH, 10/01, HT p.9)
1865 The Dante Club formed in
Boston to help Henry Wadsworth Longfellow complete the 1st top-notch
English translation of Dante’s "Inferno."
(SSFC, 2/2/03, p.M6)
1865 Jules Verne published his
book: "From the Earth to the Moon." In the book a rocket is launched
from Florida to the moon and safely returns to Earth by landing in the
ocean. Verne, the father of science fiction, uncannily predicted
through his 19th-century writing many of the scientific and
technological accomplishments of the 20th century.
(SFEC, 4/19/98, Par p.10)(HNQ, 2/6/99)
c1865 The late 20th century book
"Been in the Storm So Long" by Leon F. Litwack focused on the aftermath
of slavery in the mid 1860s and won a Pulitzer Prize.
(SFEC, 4/19/98, BR p.4)
1865 The McKendrick-Breaux House
at 1474 Magazine St., a 3-story, masonry home, was built in New Orleans.
(Hem., Dec. ‘95, p.145)
1865 William Butterfield’s auction
business was founded in SF. In 1970 Butterfield & Butterfield was
sold to Bernard Osher. In 1999 the operation was acquired by EBay, a
San Jose-based online auction house.
(SFC, 4/27/99, p.B1)(SFC, 3/8/08, p.F6)
1865 The first known baseball card
depicts the Brooklyn Atlantics in a team portrait.
(SFEC, 8/17/97, Par p.2)
1865 Pres. Lincoln dispatched
Gen’l. Lew Wallace to the Mexican border to stop the flow of
contraband. Wallace was appointed vice-president of the trial over
those accused of conspiring to assassinate Lincoln. He then presided
over the trials of Confederate Capt. Henry Wirz, commander of the
Andersonville prison camp. He served as governor of New Mexico for 4
years and then served as US minister to Turkey.
(HT, 3/97, p.66)
1865 In Kansas Fort Dodge was set
up to protect the Santa Fe Trail. No liquor was allowed within 5 miles.
(SFC, 6/13/98, p.E4)
1865 At Fort Wagner in South
Carolina the first Civil War regiment of emancipated black slaves, led
by Robert Gould Shaw, was destroyed. The event was later memorialized
by Augustus Saint-Gaudens in a bronze relief on display in Boston
Commons. The 1989 film "Glory" also portrayed the events.
(SFC,10/15/97, p.D3)
1865 Newly freed slaves founded a
community called Freedom Hill or Liberty Hill on the south side of the
Tar River in North Carolina. It was chartered in 1885 as Princeville.
(SFC, 2/3/97, p.A8)
c1865 The term scalawag referred
to Southerners who cooperated with carpetbaggers-a pejorative term
given to Northerners who, after the American Civil War, went into the
Southern states to participate in political and civic affairs.
During Reconstruction in the former Confederacy, a scalawag—a scamp or
rascal—was a white Southerner who cooperated with the so-called
carpetbaggers or supported the Republican policies. The name
carpetbagger was intended to portray these Northerners as roaming
opportunists who carried all of their belongings in cheap satchels
constructed of carpet—carpetbags—seeking to take advantage of the
situation. During Reconstruction, the South was under military rule and
the former governing class disqualified from holding official positions.
(HNQ, 12/30/99)
1865 Machine-made left and right
shoes replaced the "straights" that fit on either foot. [see 1818, and
May 19, 1885]
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R40)
c1865 Silverware makers began
making silver-plated holders and lids for glass and pottery biscuit
jars, and some were covered entirely by silver plate.
(SFC, 2/11/98, Z1 p.6)
1865 The Howe Machine Co. of
Bridgeport, Conn., was established and its sewing machine won a gold
medal at the 1867 Paris Exhibition. [see Elias Howe 1819-1867]
(HNQ, 2/27/02)
1865 Benjamin Altman founded B.
Altman & Co., a big department store at Fifth Avenue and 34th
Street in NYC. It expanded to a chain of stores but filed for
bankruptcy in 1989.
(SFC, 6/11/08, p.G3)
1865 Daniel C. Ripley founded a
lamp manufacturing firm in Pittsburgh, Pa. the following year he joined
with 5 partners to form Ripley & Co. Ripley was granted a patent in
1868 for a glass oil lamp. The company merged with others in 1891 to
form the U.S. Glass Co. of Pittsburgh.
(SFC, 12/14/05, p.G4)(SFC, 4/4/07, p.G2)
1865 Swiss furniture craftsmen
formed the Chair Makers Union of Tell City, Indiana. This later became
the Tell City Chair Co.
(SFC, 11/23/05, p.G2)
1865 Spiegel began as a Chicago
home-furnishing store. It branched into mail order for rural customers
in 1905 and abandoned its retail outlets in 1954. In 1982 it was
purchased by the German Otto family.
(WSJ, 3/2/04, p.A6)
1865 Cornell Univ., the youngest
member of the Ivy League, was founded by Ezra Cornell and Andrew
Dickson White as a coeducational, non-sectarian institution where
admission was offered irrespective of religion or race.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornell_University)
1865 The Univ. of Michigan
celebrated its 25th birthday with 1,205 students and 32 faculty
members. It surpassed Harvard as the largest university in the US.
(LSA, Fall/04, p.53)
1865 The Matterhorn was climbed by
a team of 7 climbers led by Whymper, an obsessive English illustrator.
Four of the climbers fell to their death on the descent.
(SFEM, 10/13/96, p.38)
1865 After the Civil War some
southerners moved to Brazil where slavery was still permitted.
(NH, 7/96, p.74,75)
1865 James Clerk Maxwell, British
physicist, unified the partial theories for electricity and magnetism.
(BHT, Hawking, p.19)
1865 The SF Elevator, a weekly
black newspaper edited by Philip Bell, was established.
(SFC, 7/2/07, p.B2)
1865 An earthquake hit SF.
(SFC, 4/14/96, p.Z1, p.3)
1865 In California a surprise
attack by settlers wiped out nearly all the Indians of the Yahi tribe,
south of Mt. Lassen. Remnants hid in the mountains for 40 years until
there was but one survivor, Ishi, who emerged in 1911.
(SFC, 2/19/99, p.A1)
1865 Samuel Cunard (b.1787),
founder of the 1st regular Atlantic steamship line, died. In 2003
Stephen Fox authored "Transatlantic," a chronicle of Cunard.
(MC, 11/21/01)(WSJ, 7/1/03, p.D8)
1865 Matthew Dowdy Shiell, a
sea-trader, landed on an uninhabited part of Redonda Island, part of
Antigua and Barbuda, and declared it his kingdom. Title passed out of
the Shiell family in 1947.
(Econ, 12/24/05,
p.85)(www.redonda.org/redonda.html#1869)
1865 In Argentina 153 settlers
from Wales arrived on the ship Mimosa and founded the coastal city of
Puerto Madryn, named after Sir Parry Madryn, a nobleman who assisted
them.
(SFEC, 5/9/99, Z1 p.6)
1865 In Argentina Leonardo Villa
made the first attempt at oil exploration and production. Since the
subsurface resources were owned by the government he had to seek a
permit and was denied.
(WSJ, 10/4/96, p.A9)
1865 In Belgium King Leopold II
ascended to the throne.
(SFEC, 9/27/98, BR p.1)
1865 The East London Railway
Company bought the Thames Tunnel. It later became part of the London
Underground subway system.
(ON, 4/06, p.9)
1865 Robert Fitzroy (b.1805),
British sea captain, died. He commanded the H.M.S. Beagle and
co-authored a 4-volume account of the ship’s 1831-1836
circumnavigation. In 2004 John and Mary Gribbin authored the biography
“Fitzroy.”
(WSJ, 10/8/04, p.W8)
1865 Viscount Palmerston (80),
Britain's prime minister, died.
(PC, 1992, p.273)
1865 A commercial treaty was
established between Britain and the German zollverein.
(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A20)
1865 BASF was founded in Germany
as Badische Anilin & Soda Fabrik. Anilin was important in making
dyes and soda was used in glass, soaps and textiles.
(Econ, 11/4/06, p.80)
1865 In Finland the Nokia Co.
began making wood and paper products. Later it diversified to cellular
phones.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)(Econ, 12/6/08, p.85)
1865 Emile Zola wrote a diatribe
against the annual French state-sponsored art show called the Salon. He
mocked the jurors who had rebuffed Edouard Manet amongst others.
(WSJ, 8/1/96 p.A13)
1865 Eduard Rene Lefebvre de
Laboulaye, a French scholar, proposed a monument for America's
centennial and strengthen the democratic cause in France. The monument
took form as the Statue of Liberty.
(SFEC, 6/20/99, p.T10)
1865 The St. Anne Prison was built
in Avignon, France, atop the ruins of a 13th century insane asylum. The
prison was closed in 2003 and in 2007 the government offered to sell it
for transformation to a luxury hotel.
(SFC, 12/28/07, p.A18)
1865 A Latin Monetary Union was
established amongst France, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland and Greece, but
quickly weakened as members pursued their own economic policies.
(WSJ, 1/13/98, p.A1)
1865 During the Orissa famine in
India the British political secretariat of the Bengal government
refused to import rice to the stricken areas because it was “a breach
of the laws of political economy.”
(WSJ, 2/23/06, p.D8)
1865 In Milan, Italy, the
Galleria, one of the world’s first shopping malls, was constructed.
(SFEC, 7/13/97, p.T12)
1865-1866 Gustave Courbet, French painter, painted
his "Reclining Woman." It features a plump, red-haired nude slumbering
by herself in a forest.
(WSJ, 4/6/95, p.A-12)
1865-1866 Lord John Russel served as Prime Minister
of England for a 2nd time.
(HN, 8/18/98)
1865-1867 Thomas Bard and Josiah Stanford found oil
in California’s Ojai Valley. Drilling produced the first gusher.
(SSFC, 10/29/06, p.F6)
1865-1868 Oppressive taxes levied on cotton drained
some $70 million from the US southern economy.
(WSJ, 7/22/96, p.A15)
1865-1869 Some 12,000 Chinese workers were brought to
the US to help complete the transcontinental railroad. 15,000 Chinese
worked on the transcontinental railroad.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R25)(SFEC, 2/6/00, Rp.10)
1865-1870 South America’s War of the Triple Alliance
saw Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay aligned against Paraguay. The Triple
Alliance believed Paraguay was undermining the region’s political
stability. The war ended in crushing defeat of Paraguay with 90% of its
adult male population killed.
(HNQ, 6/22/99)(WSJ, 4/10/00, p.A1)
1865-1871 Dostoevsky wrote three of his greatest
novels. The era was documented by Joseph Frank in his work "Dostoevsky:
The Miraculous Years." This book was the fourth volume of Frank’s
biographical project. From a review by James H. Billington, librarian
of Congress.
(WSJ, 3/28/95, p.A-24)
1865-1875 Henry Casebolt, San Francisco inventor of
the cable car grip, built his Casebolt Mansion at 2727 Pierce St. in
Pacific Heights.
(www.noehill.com/sf/landmarks/sf051.asp)(http://tinyurl.com/c7rum4)
1865-1875 Texas, like other Confederate states, was
subjected to a federal army of occupation for a decade.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A15)
1865-1876 Gen. Luigi Palma di Cesnola served as the
American Consul in Lanarca, Cyprus. He collected antiquities and later
sold them to the NY Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1879 he became the
director of the museum.
(WSJ, 4/10/00, p.A44)
1865-1877 This was the US period of “Reconstruction”
following the Civil War, when the South was occupied by northern troops.
(Econ, 3/3/07, SR p.4)
1865-1877 In eastern Pennsylvania the Molly McGuires,
a secret society of Irish miners, waged a war with arson, murders and
beatings, on coal-mine owners.
(WSJ, 10/7/97, p.A20)
1865-1890 Wars against the native American Indians
were fought during this period in the Pacific Northwest. In 2003 Peter
Cozzens edited: “Eyewitnesses to the Indian Wars, 1865-1890: The Wars
for the Pacific Northwest.”
(AH, 6/03, p.62)
1865-1900 In 2007 Jack Beatty authored “Age of
Betrayal: The Triumph of Money in America, 1865-1900,” a look at the
failures of American government during the Gilded Age.
(SFC, 5/8/07, p.E2)
1865-1929 Robert Henri, American artist: "The
individual says, 'My crowd doesn't run that way.' I say, don't run with
crowds."
(AP, 8/22/99)
1865-1939 William Butler Yeats, Irish poet and
playwright. The first volume of his autobiography was "Reveries Over
Childhood and Youth" (1915). Richard Ellman published a biography in
1948. "Too long a sacrifice / Can make a stone of the heart. / O when
may it suffice?"
(V.D.-H.K.p.365)(WSJ, 4/2397, p.A1)(AP, 4/29/98)
1865-1943 William Lyon Phelps, American educator and
journalist: "The fear of life is the favorite disease of the 20th
century."
(AP, 12/11/97)
1865-1946 Logan Pearsall Smith, Anglo-American
author: If you are losing your leisure, look out; you may be losing
your soul. "How awful to reflect that what people say of us is true."
(AP, 9/19/97)(AP, 1/27/99)
1865-1959 Bernard Berenson, Lithuanian-American art
critic and author: "Life has taught me that it is not for our faults
that we are disliked and even hated, but for our qualities."
(AP, 7/17/00)
1866 Jan 2, Gilbert Murray,
Australian born scholar who became the chairman of the League of
Nations, 1923 through 1928, was born.
(HN, 1/2/99)
1866 Jan 11, Steamship London sank
in storm off Land's End England and 220 people died.
(MC, 1/11/02)
1866 Feb 4, Mary Baker Eddy
"cured" her injuries by opening a bible.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1866 Feb 13, Jesse James took part
in his 1st bank holdup. At least a dozen former Southern guerrilla
soldiers, including Frank James and Cole Younger, held up the Clay
County Savings Association in Liberty, Missouri, of $15,000. Jesse
James was recovering from wounds suffered as a Confederate guerrilla
and probably wasn’t able to help brother Frank and Cole, but the
Liberty bank job is considered the James-Younger Gang’s first robbery.
Another outlaw legend, Charles "Black Bart" Boles baffled Wells Fargo
detectives during an eight year stint of 27 stagecoach robberies.
(HN, 2/13/98)(HN, 7/18/00)(MC, 2/13/02)
1866 Feb 21, Lucy B. Hobbs became
the first woman to graduate from a dental school, the Ohio College of
Dental Surgery in Cincinnati.
(AP, 2/21/98)
1866 Feb 26, Herbert Henry Dow,
pioneer in US chemical industry (Dow Chemical), was born.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1866 Feb 26, New York Legislature
established the NYC Metropolitan Board of Health.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1866 Mar 1, Paraguayan canoes sank
2 Brazilian ironclads on Rio Parana.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1866 Mar 2, Excelsior Needle
Company of Wolcottville, Connecticut, began making sewing machine
needles, the 1st US company to make sewing needles.
(HC, Internet, 2/3/98)(SC, 3/2/02)
1866 Mar 10, Antonio Francesco
Gaetano S. Pacini (87), composer, died.
(MC, 3/10/02)
1866 Mar 19, The immigrant ship
Monarch of the Seas sank in Liverpool; 738 died.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1866 Mar 21, The US Congress
authorized national soldiers' homes.
(MC, 3/21/02)
1866 Mar 27, President Andrew
Johnson vetoed the civil rights bill, which later became the 14th
amendment.
(HN, 3/27/98)
1866 Mar 27, Andrew Rankin
patented the urinal.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1866 Mar 31, Fred. Law Olmsted,
New York City landscape architect, wrote a long piece on city planning
for parks with special reference to San Francisco.
(SFEM, 7/27/97, p.30)
1866 Apr 1, Ferruccio D.M.B.
Busoni, pianist, composer, conductor (Arlecchino), was born in Italy.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1866 Apr 1, US Congress rejected
presidential veto and gave all equal rights.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1866 Apr 2, Pres. Johnson ended
war in Ala, Ark, Fla, Ga, Miss, La, NC, SC, Ten and Va.
(MC, 4/2/02)
1866 Apr 6, Butch Cassidy, [Robert
Parker], US desperado (Wild Bunch Passage), was born. [see Apr 13,15]
(HN, 4/6/98)(MC, 4/6/02)
1866 Apr 6, Joseph Lincoln
Steffens (d.1936), American political philosopher, investigative
reporter and muckraker journalist (Shame of the Cities), was born in
San Francisco: "Nothing is done. Everything in the world remains to be
done or done over." "Never practice what you preach. If you’re going to
practice it, why preach it?"
(AP, 5/16/97)(HN, 4/6/98)(AP, 4/24/98)(HNQ, 10/4/98)
1866 Apr 6, G.A.R. was formed
(Grand Army of the Republic). It was composed of men who served in the
US Army and Navy during the Civil War. The last member died in 1956.
(WUD, 1994 p.614)(MC, 4/6/02)
1866 Apr 9, A Civil Rights Bill
passed over Pres Andrew Johnson's veto to secure for former slaves all
the rights of citizenship intended by the 13th Amendment. The president
was empowered to use the Army to enforce the law. This formed the basis
for the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
(MC, 4/9/02)(PC, 1992, p.502)
1866 Apr 10, The American Society
for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) was incorporated.
(AP, 4/9/97)
1866 Apr 13, Butch Cassidy [Robert
LeRoy Parker], American western outlaw and leader of the Wild Bunch,
was born in Beaver, Utah. [see Apr 6,15]
(HN, 4/13/99)
1866 Apr 14, Anne Mansfield
Sullivan, teacher who educated Helen Keller, was born.
(HN, 4/14/98)
1866 Apr 15, Robert LeRoy Parker,
a.k.a. "Butch Cassidy," was born in Beaver, Utah. [see Apr 6,13]
(MesWP)
1866 Apr 15, William Jackson (51),
composer, died.
(MC, 4/15/02)
1866 Apr 16, Karakozov attempted
to assassinate Tsar Alexander II of Russia.
(MC, 4/16/02)
1866 Apr 17, Ernest Henry
Starling, British physiologist, was born.
(HN, 4/17/01)
1866 May 2, Jesse Lazear, American
physician and researcher of yellow fever.
(HN, 5/2/02)
1866 May 3, The first submarine in
the Americas, a 39-foot vessel designed in the 1860s by German
immigrant Karl Flach, sank in the Bay of Valparaiso off the coast of
Chile. The crew, two Chileans, two Frenchmen and seven Germans,
including Flach and his 15-year-old son, all died. In 2007 a search
team found the vessel.
(Reuters, 5/3/07)
1866 May 5, Villagers in Waterloo,
NY, held their 1st Memorial Day service. In 1966 Pres. Johnson gave
Waterloo, NY, the distinction of holding the 1st Memorial Day. On Apr
13, 1862, volunteers led by Sarah J. Evans had paid homage to the
graves of Civil War soldiers in the Washington area.
(SFC, 5/26/03, p.A2)
1866 May 7, German premier Otto
von Bismarck was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1866 May 11, Confederate President
Jefferson Davis became a free man after spending two years in prison
for his role in the American Civil War.
(HN, 5/11/99)
1866 May 11, The Overend Gurney,
known as the 'bankers bank,' suspended payments and went into
liquidation owing £11 million to shareholders and the public.
Overend Gurney began collapsing in the early months of 1866. The bank
run on Overend Gurney was the last in the UK until 2007.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overend,_Gurney_and_Company)(Econ,
9/22/07, p.16)
1866 May 16, US Congress
authorized the minting of the first five-cent piece, also known as the
"Shield nickel." The Shield nickel was quite effective in replacing the
half dime, as its base metal composition discouraged hoarding and
caused it to circulate very widely.
(AP,
5/16/07)(http://en.allexperts.com/q/Coin-Collecting-2297/dime-small.htm)
1866 May 16, Charles Elmer Hires
invented root beer.
(MC, 5/16/02)
1866 May 17, Erik Alfred Leslie
Satie, French composer, was born.
(HN, 5/17/01)
1866 May 18, French Government of
De Putte resigned.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1866 May 24, Founders of UC
Berkeley named their town after Bishop George Berkeley due to a line
Berkeley’s poem: On the Prospect of Planting Arts and Learning in
America: "Westward the course of empire takes its way."
(SFC, 3/28/03, p.A3)
1866 May 29, US Gen'l. Winfield
Scott (79) died at West Point, New York. Union General Winfield Scott
was the originator of the military strategy known as the "Anaconda
Plan." Scott's plan for defeating the Confederacy featured a naval
blockade of the South designed to slowly "strangle" the fledgling
country. The Union did impose such a blockade, but by 1861 Scott was
considered too old to lead the federal armies and he retired that
November. Although a Virginian born on June 13, 1786, Scott-popularly
called "Old Fuss and Feathers"-remained loyal to the Union and its army
he commanded when war broke out.
(HNQ,
2/19/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winfield_Scott)
1866 May 30, Bederich Smetana's
Opera "The Bartered Bride" premiered in Prague.
(MC, 5/30/02)
1866 Jun 2, Renegade Irish Fenians
surrendered to US forces.
(SC, 6/2/02)
1866 Jun 7, Irish Fenians raided
Pigeon Hill, Quebec.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1866 Jun 8, Prussia annexed the
region of Holstein.
(HN, 6/8/98)
1866 Jun 15, Prussia attacked
Austria.
(HN, 6/15/98)
1866 Jun 20, Lord George ESMH
Carnarvon, Egyptologist (Tutankhamen), was born in England.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1866 Jul 4, Firecracker thrown in
wood started a fire that destroyed Portland, Me.
(Maggio, 98)
1866 Jul 10, The Indelible pencil
was patented by Edson P. Clark of Northampton, Mass.
(MC, 7/10/02)
1866 Jul 13, Great Eastern began a
two week voyage to complete a 12-year effort to lay telegraph cable
across the Atlantic between Britain and the United States.
Massachusetts merchant and financier Cyrus West Field first proposed
laying a 2,000-mile copper cable along the ocean bottom from
Newfoundland to Ireland in 1854, but the first three attempts ended in
broken cables and failure. Field’s persistence finally paid off in July
1866, when Great Eastern, the largest ship then afloat, successfully
laid the cable along the level, sandy bottom of the North Atlantic. As
messages traveled between Europe and America in hours rather than
weeks, Cyrus Field was showered with honors. Among the honors was this
commemorative print referring to the cable as the Eighth Wonder of the
World.
(HN, 7/13/98)(HNPD, 7/29/98)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R22)
1866 Jul 21, A cholera-epidemic
killed hundreds in London.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1866 Jul 23, Francesco Cilea,
composer, was born.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1866 Jul 24, Tennessee became the
first state to be readmitted to the Union after the Civil War.
(AP, 7/24/97)
1866 Jul 25, Ulysses S. Grant was
named General of the Army, the first officer to hold the rank.
(AP, 7/25/97)
1866 Jul 27, Cyrus W. Field
finished laying out the first successful underwater telegraph cable
between North America and Europe. A previous cable in 1858 burned out
after only a few weeks of use.
(AP, 7/27/08)
1866 Jul 28, Beatrix Potter
(d.1943), English author of children's stories (The Tale of Peter
Rabbit), was born.
(HN, 7/28/98)
1866 Jul 28, Metric system became
a legal measurement system in US. It defined the meter as exactly 39.37
inches and was later superceded.
(SC, 7/28/02)(SFC, 10/13/03, p.E2)
1866 Jul 29, Barbe-Nicole Clicquot
(b.1777), head of the Clicquot champagne business, died. She was
widowed at age 27 and transformed her husbands struggling business into
one of the great champagne houses of France. In 2008 Tilar J. Mazzeo
authored “The Widow Clicquot.”
(WSJ, 11/5/08,
p.A21)(http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbe-Nicole_Clicquot-Ponsardin)
1866 Jul, The Sioux war on the
Powder river commenced. When it commenced General St. George Cook, in
command at Omaha, forbade within the limits of his command the sale of
arms and ammunition to Indians.
(http://facweb.furman.edu/~benson/docs/peace.htm)
1866 Aug 8, African-American
Matthew Alexander Henson was born in Maryland. He and four Inuits
accompanied U.S. Naval Commander Robert E. Peary when he planted the
U.S. flag at the North Pole on April 6, 1909. Henson became an Arctic
expert during Peary's first two failed expeditions. By the third
attempt, which began in July 1908, Henson's strength, knowledge of the
Eskimo language and dog driving skills made him an essential member of
the team. Whether Peary's party actually reached the North Pole or
missed it by as much as 60 miles due to a navigational miscalculation
remains controversial to this day.
(HNPD, 8//99)(Internet)
1866 Aug 11, The world's 1st
roller rink opened at Newport, RI.
(MC, 8/11/02)
1866 Aug 12, Jacinto Benavente y
Martinez, Spanish dramatist (Nobel 1922), was born.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1866 Aug 20, President Andrew
Johnson formally declared the Civil War over, even though the fighting
had stopped months earlier. After the Civil War Congress voted to give
freed slaves 40 acres and a mule but Pres. Johnson killed the plan with
a veto.
(AP, 8/20/97)(SFC, 6/29/99, p.A7)
1866 Aug 23, Treaty of Prague
ended the Austro-Prussian war.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1866 Aug 31, In Korea the US trade
ship USS General Sherman ignored demands to turn back on the Taedong
River, took hostages and fired on civilians. A 4-day battle followed in
which all of the crew were killed.
(AH, 10/07,
p.57)(www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/General_Sherman_incident)
1866 Sep 1, James J. Corbett,
"Gentleman Jim," heavyweight champion boxer (1892-97), was born. He was
the boxer who beat the legendary John L. Sullivan. After his boxing
career he became an actor and lecturer.
(MC, 9/1/02)(SC, 9/1/02)
1866 Sep 1, Manuelito, the last
Navaho chief, turned himself in at Fort Wingate, New Mexico.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1866 Sep 6, Frederick Douglass
became the 1st US black delegate to a national convention.
(MC, 9/6/01)
1866 Sep 8, Siegfried Sassoon,
British author and poet famous for his anti-war writing about World War
I, was born. His work included "Counterattack."
(HN, 9/8/98)(MC, 9/8/01)
1866 Sep 12, The first burlesque
show opened in New York City (NYC). The show was a four act performance
called "The Black Crow", running for 475 performances and made a
reported $1.3 million for its producers.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1866 Sep 21, Charles Jean Henri
Nicolle, bacteriologist, was born. He discovered that typhus fever is
transmitted by body louse and was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1928.
(HN, 9/21/98)(MC, 9/21/01)
1866 Sep 21, H.G. Wells (d.1946),
English novelist and historian was born as Herbert George Wells in
Bromley, Kent, England. His work included the novel "Marriage" and "The
Time Machine" (1895). The science fiction writer is best known for "The
Time Machine" (1895), "The Invisible Man" and "The War of the Worlds."
(WSJ, 11/21/96,
p.A20)(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jwells.htm)
1866 Sep 25, (Leonard W) Jerome
Park opened in Bronx for horse racing.
(MC, 9/25/01)
1866 Oct 2, J. Osterhoudt patented
a tin can with key opener.
(MC, 10/2/01)
1866 Oct 6, The Reno
brothers—Frank, John, Simeon and William—committed the country’s first
train robbery near Seymore, In., netting $10,000.
(HN, 10/6/98)
1866 Oct 15, A great fire in
Quebec destroyed 2,500 houses.
(MC, 10/15/01)
1866 Oct 30, Jesse James gang
robbed a bank in Lexington, Missouri, of $2000.
(MC, 10/30/01)
1866 Nov 1, Belle Starr
[née Myra Maybelle Shirley], “Bandit Queen” and wild woman of
the west, married James C. Reed (d.1874) in Collins County, Texas.
(www.thehistorynet.com/we/blbanditqueenbellestar/)
1866 Nov 1, 1st Civil Rights Bill
passed.
(MC, 11/1/01)
1866 Nov 12, Sun Yat-Sen (d.1925),
Chinese statesman and revolutionary leader, was born (trad). Born to a
Christian peasant near Macao, he attended an Anglican grammar school in
Hawaii, and went on to graduate from Hong Kong School of Medicine in
1892. While there he became involved in revolutionary activities and
was forced to leave China in 1895. He organized a revolutionary secret
society in 1905. In 1911 he returned to China after a successful
revolution in the south and became provisional president of a
republican government there before stepping aside for Yuan Shih-k’ai.
Sun formed the nationalist Kuomintang party in 1912.: "To understand is
hard. Once one understands, action is easy."
(HFA, ‘96, p.18)(AP, 6/22/97)(HNQ, 6/3/98)
1866 Nov 17, Ambroise Thomas'
opera "Mignon" was produced (Paris).
(MC, 11/17/01)
1866 Nov 19, The sailing ship
Coya, a Welsh coal ship out of Sidney with passengers bound for SF,
wrecked near Pigeon Point, Ca. 26 people perished and 3 survived.
(SFC, 8/10/02, p.A13)
1866 Nov 20, Pierre Lalemont
patented a rotary crank bicycle.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1866 Nov 28, Henry Bacon,
architect (Lincoln Memorial), was born.
(MC, 11/28/01)
1866 Nov 30, Work in Chicago
began on 1st US underwater highway tunnel.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1866 Dec 4, Wassily Kandinsky
(d.1944), Russian artist, was born. He is credited with the invention
of abstract art.
(WUD, 1994, p.778)(WSJ, 8/13/99, p.W10)(HN, 12/4/00)
1866 Dec 6, Chicago water supply
tunnel into Lake Michigan was completed. In the late 1800s the city
reversed the water flow of the Chicago River so that it flow in from
Lake Michigan and carry pollution out to drain into the Mississippi.
(MC, 12/6/01)(SSFC, 8/18/02, p.C12)
1866 Dec 14, Roger Fry, English
art critic, was born.
(HN, 12/14/00)
1866- Dec 20-21, The Lakota Sioux
Indians called this night "The moon when the Deer shed their horns." A
bright full moon occurred due to a confluence of 3 celestial events.
The moon reached perigee with Earth on the solstice with the sun at its
closest point. The event occurred again on Dec 22, 1999.
(WSJ, 12/16/99, p.A1)
1866 Dec 21, Indians led by Red
Cloud and Crazy Horse killed Captain William J. Fetterman and 79 other
men who had ventured out from Fort Phil Kearny to cut wood. U.S. Army
Captain William J. Fetterman once boasted, "Give me 80 men and I'll
march through the whole Sioux nation!" When Lakota warriors under the
overall leadership of Chief Red Cloud gathered around Fort Phil Kearny
(in what is now Wyoming), Fetterman got command of his 80 men.
Disobeying the orders of his commander, Colonel Henry B Carrington, not
to proceed beyond the Lodge Trail Ridge, Fetterman pursued a band of
retreating Indians--and rode right into a waiting trap, allegedly laid
by the Ogallala warrior Crazy Horse. Fetterman, his executive officer
and 78 troopers were wiped out.
(HNPD, 12/21/98)(HN, 12/21/98)
1866 Dec 26, Brig. Gen. Philip St.
George Cooke, head of the Department of the Platte receives word of the
Dec 21 Fetterman Fight in Powder River County in the Dakota territory.
(HN, 12/26/99)
1866 Albert Bierstadt created his
painting "Storm in the Rocky Mountains: Mt. Rosalie."
(WSJ, 9/19/02, p.D12)
1866 Gustave Courbet, French
artist, painted "The Waterspout" and “Origin of the World.”
(WSJ, 11/28/06, p.D8)
1866 Edouard Manet painted "Young
Lady in 1866." The painting helped pave the way for Impressionism.
(WSJ, 8/3/01, p.W2)
1866 Jean-Francois Millet painted
"Flight of Crows."
(WSJ, 7/12/99, p.A26)
1866 Louisa May Alcott wrote her
novel "A Long Fatal Love Chase." It was then deemed too sensational for
publication.
(SFC, 4/30/96, p. B-3)
1866 Samuel Baker authored "The
Albert N’yanza, Great Basin of the Nile, and Explorations of the Nile
Sources."
(ON, 10/01, p.12)
1866 Dostoevsky wrote his "Crime
and Punishment."
(WSJ, 3/28/95, p.A-24)
1866 Edouard Seguin (1812-1880),
French physician, authored “Idiocy and Its Treatment.” He had
established schools in France and the US for the intellectually
handicapped, which stressed the importance of developing self-reliance
and independence.
(ON, 3/07,
p.3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edouard_Seguin)
1866 Bedrich Smetana wrote his
opera "The Bartered Bride."
(MC, 5/16/02)
1866 The word "ecology" was coined
by German zoologist Ernst Haeckel from the Greek oikos, for house, and
logos, for discourse. It meant the study of the relations between
living organisms and their environment.
(NH, 2/97, p.4)
1866 The Boston Yacht Club was
founded.
(SFEC, 7/13/97, p.T7)
1866 The New York Yacht Club
hosted the 1st-ever transatlantic race.
(Econ, 5/28/05, p.35)
1866 A group of NY sportsmen
purchased some 4,000 acres on Long Island centered around Snedecor’s
Tavern and established the Southside Sportsmen’s Club. Around 1963 the
land was turned into a state preserve.
(WSJ, 10/9/07, p.D6)
1866 The veteran organization
Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was formed in Springfield, Illinois,
in 1866. The patriotic organization of U.S. Civil War veterans who
served in Federal forces was formed to protect the interests of the
veterans. The GAR had a peak membership of more than 400,000 in 1890
and was a powerful political influence. The organization was dissolved
in 1956.
(HNQ, 8/30/98)
1866 The Ku Klux Klan is generally
acknowledged to have started in Pulaski, Tenn., in this year. [see Dec
24, 1865]
(WSJ, 7/15/96, p.A1)
1866 Pres. Andrew Johnson signed
an executive order that removed the Shoalwater Bay Indians in
Washington state from their villages and onto a 1-sq. mile reservation.
By 2000 erosion took away over half the tribal land and miscarriages
stood at 4 times the expected rate.
(SFEC, 3/26/00, p.A8)
1866 The US coined some silver
dollars without the inscription "In God We Trust." Only 2 coins were
known to exist in 2004. In Oct 1867, one was stolen along with some
7,000 other rare coins from the Florida collection of Willis H. du
Pont. It turned up in 2004.
(ST, 3/2/04, p.A8)
1866 The US government bought land
around northern California’s Golden Gate for harbor defense. The area
was turned into the Old Lime Point military reservation.
(SFC, 6/13/08, p.A22)
1866 San Francisco established The
Almshouse on the grounds of what later became Laguna Honda Hospital,
providing shelter for the city’s unemployed and homeless men.
(SFC, 8/26/08, p.B5)
1866 Henry Casebolt, San Francisco
transit tycoon, built a house at 2727 Pierce St.
(SFC, 5/5/07, p.B3)
1866 Mary Ellen Pleasant was
kicked off a streetcar in San Francisco and began arguing against laws
prohibiting black people from riding them.
(SFC, 2/16/09, p.B2)
1866 The Moretti and Respini
families settled coastal property north of Santa Cruz, Ca., and
developed their Coast Dairies.
(SFC, 7/28/06, p.A1)
1866 In San Francisco the Sisters
of Notre Dame de Namur opened Notre Dame school across the street from
the Mission Dolores.
(SFC, 3/18/05, p.F2)
1866 William Hammond Hall began to
design San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
(OAH, 2/05, p.A10)
1866 In San Francisco by this time
Lawrence & Houseworth, opticians, had established their firm as the
most prominent publisher on the West Coast. Their catalog included some
1200 images.
(SFEC, 5/23/99, DB p.42)
1866 Swiss-born Antoine Borel
(1840-1915) took over his brother’s SF mercantile firm, Alfred Borel
& Co., when Alfred returned to Europe. Antoine later became
director of the Bank of California (1882-1909), held directorships in
the SF Dry Dock Co., the Golden Gate Milk Co. and the Spring Valley
Water Co. He assumed the position of Swiss consul in 1885.
(Ind, 4/5/03, 5A)
1866 Pacific Rolling Mills opened
the first big iron and steel mill in the West at what became known as
Pier 70 in SF.
(SSFC, 9/14/08, p.A11)
1866 Freed Cherokee slaves were
adopted into the tribe under a treaty with the US government. In 2007
the Cherokee Nation voted to revoke citizenship to descendants of the
slaves.
(SFC, 3/5/07, p.A2)
1866 In Mississippi a fifth of the
state’s revenues were spent on artificial arms and legs for Confederate
veterans.
(SFEC, 7/6/97, Z1 p.6)
1866 A white mob rushed a
courthouse in Carroll County, Miss., after 2 black men filed a lawsuit
against a white man. Over 20 blacks were murdered.
(WSJ, 10/17/08, p.A14)
1866 Western Union introduced the
ticker system to supply New York Stock Exchange prices to brokers
around the country.
(SFC, 2/2/06, p.A13)
1866 The Hopland, Ca., hops
industry began. The damp soils of the Russian River floodplains were
suitable for the cultivation of hops, whose flowers determine the
bitterness and aromatic properties of beer.
(WCG, 7/95, p.91)
1866 Oliver F. Winchester, a
Connecticut shirt maker, began making Winchester rifles in New Haven,
spearheading the development of rifles for multiple shots.
(WSJ, 6/15/06, p.B2)
1866 The railroad land grant
corporations in Montana, led by J.P. Morgan and James Hill, grabbed off
40 million acres.
(SFC, 4/28/96, B-9)
1866 When the transcontinental
railroad reached Abilene, Kansas, Chicago livestock buyer J.G. McCoy
saw the possibilities of linking the unwanted herds of Texas longhorns
with the meat-packing centers of Chicago. McCoy built a series of
holding pens in Abilene and convinced south Texas ranchers to drive the
cattle north along the Chisholm Trail to the railhead.
(HNPD, 1/4/99)
1866 Jasper Daniel (Jack Daniel)
started distilling whiskey in Lynchburg, Tenn.
(SFC, 2/04/04, p.D2)
1866 James Vernor, a Detroit
pharmacist, began marketing a new soft drink.
(SFEC, 2/21/99, Z1 p.8)
1866 Mendel published two
mathematical papers wherein he established that the offspring of a pair
of different plants would evince the working of simple statistical laws.
(V.D.-H.K.p.330)
1866 Richard Owen published his
monograph on the Dodo bird: "Memoir on the Dodo (Didus ineptus)."
(NH, 11/96, p.23,28)
1866 Weather records began to be
officially kept.
(SFC, 1/23/99, p.E4)
1866 The first 124 leprosy
patients were dropped off on the Kalaupapa peninsula of the Hawaiian
island of Molokai.
(SFEC, 9/8/96, T3)
1866 The Calaveras skull, from a
mining shaft in Altaville near Angels Camp in Calaveras County, Ca.,
was one of the most notorious archaeological hoaxes perpetrated in the
nineteenth century.
(RFH-MDHP, p.177)
1866 Colonel John O'Neill of the
Fenian Brotherhood--formerly of the U.S. cavalry--led a force of
Irish-Americans against this British-ruled Canada. A year after
America's Civil War ended, scores of Irish Americans who had once
fought for the Union or the Confederacy joined forces against a new
enemy.
(HNQ, 4/17/01)
1866 The West Pier at Brighton,
England, was built by Eugenius Birch. It was closed in 1975.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Pier)
1866 In England Hyde Park was
trashed by citizens who were outraged that it could no longer be used
for public demonstrations or speech. The government relaxed
restrictions against free speech and orators began preaching at
Speakers Corner near the Marble Arch in Hyde Park. [see 1872]
(BS, 5/3/98, p.1R)(SFEM, 3/21/99, p.24)
1866 Henry Wickham (1846-1928)
ventured from Britain to South America hoping to shoot exotic birds and
ship home feathers for lady’s hats. This venture failed as the birds
exploded from the rifle shots. He returned to the Amazon region and in
1876 gathered seeds of the Hevea brasiliensis tree, which produced
latex. Less than 4% of some 70,000 seeds germinated, but this was
enough to ship seedlings to Ceylon, India, Malaya and Singapore and
begin a global rubber plantation boom.
(WSJ, 2/27/08, p.D10)
1866 French colonial officials
sent an expedition to explore the Mekong River and check its commercial
potential.
(Econ, 1/3/04, p.29)
1866 In northern India an Islamic
place of learning was founded in Deoband. The school set austere roles
for personal behavior and led to offshoots such as the Tablighi Jama’at
and the Taliban.
(Econ, 5/2/09, p.60)(http://tinyurl.com/qzkshj)
1866 Diamonds were discovered in
South Africa. [see 1867]
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R49)
1866 In Sweden Alfred Nobel
invented dynamite, a safe and manageable form of nitroglycerin. A
pacifist by nature, Nobel hoped that the destructive power of his
invention would bring an end to wars.
(HNPD, 10/21/98)
1866 Venice joined the Kingdom of
Italy.
(WSJ, 9/19/97, p.A13)
1864 Missionaries settled in
Zanzibar following a call by David Livingstone for volunteers to fight
the slave trade and help spread Christianity across Africa.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.C13)
1866-1868 When the US government tried to force the
Sioux back to Fort Laramie, the Indians responded with attacks that
culminated in Red Cloud’s War of this period. Red Cloud’s War of
1866-‘68 was waged in opposition to the development by the U.S.
government of a trail through Wyoming and Montana to the Montana gold
camps. The two-year war was waged between the Lakota Sioux, led by
Ogallala chief Red Cloud, and the U.S. Army. On December 21, 1866, the
Sioux won a major victory, wiping out the entire command of 80 men
under Capt. William J. Fetterman. The war ended with the signing of the
Laramie Treaty, which included the closure of the Bozeman Trail and
U.S. abandonment of three forts.
(HT, 3/97, p.43)(HNQ, 8/22/98)
1866-1890 During the Indian Wars, the black Buffalo
Soldiers of the 9th Cavalry represented 20% of Army personnel involved.
(SFEC, 4/5/98, p.C14)
1866-1926 Aby Warburg, a wealthy independent scholar.
He later authored "The Renewal of Pagan Antiquity."
(SFEC, 12/12/99, BR p.10)
1866-1939 Philander Chase Johnson, American author:
"Cheer up! The worst is yet to come!"
(AP, 8/19/99)
1866-1944 George Ade, American humorist.
(AHD, 1971, p.15)
1866-1944 Vasily Kandinsky, Russian born painter. He
is considered the originator of abstract art. He lived with painter
Gabriele Munter in Munich from 1903 until the outbreak of WW I when he
was forced to leave Germany. His work includes "Composition VII" (1913).
(WUD, 1994, p.778)(SFC, 7/7/96, BR p.9)
1866-1947 Richard Le Gallienne, English poet and
essayist: "It is only on paper that one moralizes—just where one
shouldn’t."
(AP, 6/21/98)
1866-1954 Ernest Dimnet, French priest, lecturer and
author: "The happiness of most people we know is not ruined by great
catastrophes or fatal errors, but by the repetition of slowly
destructive little things."
(AP, 9/6/98)
1866-1959 Abraham Flexner, American educator and
author: "Comfort, opportunity, number and size are not synonymous with
civilization."
(AP, 11/14/99)
Go to 1867-1870