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January - February
January 1863 - USS Quaker City along with USS Memphis seize the Mercury, a Confederate blockade runner from Charleston on its way to Nassau, Bahamas with turpentine and mail. January 1863 - Following two days of off and on skirmishing around Jonesville, Confederates surround the Union force and take 200 prisoners after a pitched battle. -
March - April
Congress rejects a call by President Lincoln to adopt a standard railroad gauge of 5 feet and adopts the 4 foot, 8 and one-half inches gauge. It is sometimes called the Congressional gauge. Naval assaults on Ft. McAllister resumes, lasting eight hours on this day. The damage to the fort's sand walls is quickly repaired. -
May - June
May 1863 -- The Battle of Chancellorsville
On April 27, Union General Hooker crossed the Rappahannock River to attack General Lee's forces. Lee split his army, attacking a surprised Union army in three places and almost completely defeating them. Hooker withdrew across the Rappahannock River, giving the South a victory, but it was the Confederates' most costly victory in terms of casualties. -
May - June
May 1863 -- 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. -
May - June
June - 1863 Confederate General Lee decided to take the war to the enemy. On June 13, he defeated Union forces at Winchester, Virginia, and continued north to Pennsylvania. General Hooker, who had been planning to attack Richmond, was instead forced to follow Lee. Hooker, never comfortable with his commander, General Halleck, resigned on June 28, and General George Meade replaced him as commander of the Army of the Potomac. -
July - August
After the Battle of Gettysburg, General Meade engaged in some cautious and inconclusive operations, but the heavy activity of the photographers was confined to the intervals between them -- at Bealeton, southwest of Warrenton, in August, and at Culpeper, before the Mine Run Campaign. -
July - August
On July 1, a chance encounter between Union and Confederate forces began the Battle of Gettysburg. In the fighting that followed, Meade had greater numbers and better defensive positions. He won the battle, but failed to follow Lee as he retreated back to Virginia. Militarily, the Battle of Gettysburg was the high-water mark of the Confederacy; it is also significant because it ended Confederate hopes of formal recognition by foreign governments.