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Election
Abraham Lincoln is elected the 16th President of the United States. -
Confederate
February 18 – Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the Provisional President of the Confederate States of America. The song Dixie becomes the unofficial anthem of the Confederacy as it is played at his inauguration ceremony. -
Gazette
March 6 – The new Confederate Congress authorizes the use of 100,000 volunteer soldiers for twelve months. The Civil War Gazette allows the first-hand participants - both common soldier and civilian - to tell the story of their experience of the Civil War from their perspective; -
Captured by the Union
February 25 – Nashville, Tennessee, becomes the first southern State capital to be captured by the Union, without a shot even being fired. It will remain in Federal control the remainder of the war. Also on this day, Lincoln signs the Legal Tender Act creating the first national currency. -
north and south
April 6/7 – the most devastating clash between the North and South (to date) takes places at Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River that would be called the battle of Shiloh. General Albert Sidney Johnston’s Confederate forces launch a surprise attack against Union General Ulysses S. Grant and nearly destroys the Union Army on day one. -
Robert Smalls
May 13 – a young slave from Charleston, Robert Smalls, escapes aboard a Confederate steamer, the Planter, with family members and several friends in the early morning hours. The boat is turned over to the Union blockading fleet under Admiral Samuel Du Pont, and Smalls becomes a Union naval hero and black leader. -
U.S Congress
May 20 – U.S. Congress passes the Homestead Act of 1862, offering 160 acres of land to any male settler who will migrate and become a homesteader in the fertile ground of the Western United States. Some 25,000 settlers will eventually take advantage of this opportunity. -
bidding
August 20 – At the bidding of Major General Hunter, Robert Smalls (escaped slave from May 13, 1862) and missionary Mansfield French, meet with President Lincoln and Secretary of War Stanton, seeking authorization to recruit five thousand black troops. Permission was granted five days later. -
Major Battle
December 31-January 2 — A major battle takes place over three days in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, to become known as the battle of Stone’s River. The forces engaged include the Confederate Army of Tennessee, led by Braxton Bragg, and the Army of the Cumberland led by William Rosecran’s. It is the bloodiest battle to date in terms of casualties weighed against the numbers of men fighting. More than one-third of the Confederates were killed, wounded or captures; and the Union suffered similar casualt -
Mud March
January 20-22 – General Ambrose Burnside gets bogged down in trying to flank the Confederates near Fredericksburg. It becomes a major public relations nightmare known as the Mud March. -
National Currency Act
February 25 – National Currency Act goes into effect for the United States, (later to become known as the National Banking Act of 1864) making it easier to finance the war with government bonds. -
Congress passes
March 3 – Congress passes the Conscription Act, calling for the enlistment in military service of all able-bodied males between 20 and 45 years of age for terms of three years. -
The Vicksburg Campaign.
Union General Grant won several victories around Vicksburg, Mississippi, the fortified city considered essential to the Union's plans to regain control of the Mississippi River. On May 22, Grant began a siege of the city. After six weeks, Confederate General John Pemberton surrendered, giving up the city and 30,000 men. The capture of Port Hudson, Louisiana, shortly thereafter placed the entire Mississippi River in Union hands. The Confederacy was split in two. -
The Battle of Cold Harbor.
Grant again attacked Confederate forces at Cold Harbor, losing over 7,000 men in twenty minutes. Although Lee suffered fewer casualties, his army never recovered from Grant's continual attacks. This was Lee's last clear victory of the war -
Final Surrenders among Remaining Confederate Troops.
Remaining Confederate troops were defeated between the end of April and the end of May. Jefferson Davis was captured in Georgia on May 10.