 1 January.

The Emancipation Proclamation  Louisa May Alcott

is signed. publishes Hospital
 26 January.  The governor of Sketches about her
Massachusetts begins to recruit African- experiences as a nurse
American troops, and the 54th Massachusetts in a Union hospital. 
Volunteers, the first black regiment, is formed  Longfellow, Tales of a
shortly thereafter.  By the end of the war, the Wayside Inn 
Union army will contain 166 all-black  Abraham Lincoln,
regiments composed of 185,000 soldiers.  "Gettysburg Address" 
 3 March. Abraham Lincoln signs the first  Thoreau, Excursions 
national Conscription Act requiring males from  Hawthorne,Our Old
ages 20-45 to register for service in the army. Home
The act allows males to purchase substitutes  Edward Everett Hale
to take their place for $300, a clause that (1822-1909), "The Man
allows many wealthy Americans to avoid Without a Country"
serving and led to accusations that this was a
"rich man's war but a poor man's fight." 
 2-4 May. With heavy losses on both sides
(over 10,000 killed), Lee's forces defeat
Hooker's Army of the Potomac for a Southern
victory at Chancellorsville, a battle later
described in Stephen Crane's The Red Badge
of Courage (1895). 
 22 May. Ulysses Grant's troops besiege
Vicksburg, Mississippi. 
 20 June. West Virginia is admitted to the
Union as a state. 
 1-3 July. Battle of Gettysburg. Under
General Meade, Northern troops hold their
position and deflect Lee's attack.  After the
battle, Lee and his troops  withdraw to Virginia,
but Meade fails to follow.  The  South loses
28,000 and the North 23,000 men in three
days of fighting.
 4 July. Vicksburg surrenders unconditionally
to Ulysses S. Grant, who earns a new
nickname: "Unconditional Surrender" Grant. 
 13-16 July. Draft riots erupt in New York City
as a predominantly Irish-American mob
protests the drawing of names on July 11
under the Conscription Act .  Widespread
lynchings of African Americans and lootings
are finally brought under control by Federal
troops. (Read about the draft riots in the
Columbia Encyclopedia, or go to an extended
day-by-day chronology at Virtual New York)
 18 July. Led by Col. Robert Gould Shaw and
the 54th Massachusetts, an all-African
American regiment, Union forces attack Fort
Wagner.
 21 August.  Led by Southern sympathizer
William C. Quantrill, a group calling itself
"Quantrill's Raiders" invades Lawrence,
Kansas, and kills over 180 civilians. 
 19-20 September.  Battle of Chickamauga
(Georgia). Gen. Bragg's Confederate troops
defeat Union forces, which retreat to
Chattanooga. Confederate casualties number
18,000; Union casualties, 16,000. 
 19 November.  Lincoln dedicates the
cemetery at Gettysburg, the occasion of the
"Gettysburg Address."
 Lincoln re-elected.   Death of Nathaniel
 Sand Creek Massacre of Native Americans Hawthorne; he is buried
in Colorado  in Concord, Mass. 
 10 March.  Grant is promoted from Locke, The Naseby
commander of the Union forces in the west to Papers
commander of the Union armies. 
 5-6
May. Battle
of the

Wilderness,  during which brushfires started by

gunfire kill many wounded.( Image: General
Grant and staff on the road from the
Wilderness to Spotsylvania Courthouse,
Virginia May 7, 1864 courtesy of American
Treasures page.)
 27 June.  Confederate forces repel Sherman
at Kenesaw Mountain, Georgia.
 5 August.  Union naval forces under Admiral
David Farragut successfully attack the key
Confederate port of Mobile Bay.  After mines
destroy one ship, Farragut continues the
assault, yelling  "Damn the torpedoes!  Full
Speed ahead!"
 2 September. Sherman takes Atlanta and,
on 16 November,  begins his "march to the
sea," creating a 40-mile-wide path of
destruction that ends when he reaches
Savannah on 22 December.
 4 February.  Robert E. Lee is promoted to  Mark Twain, "The
commander-in-chief of the Confederate army. Celebrated Jumping
 17-18 February.  Columbia and Charleston, Frog of Calaveras
South Carolina, fall to Union forces.  County" 
 22 February. Wilmington, North Carolina,  Walt Whitman,  "When
the last remaining southern port, is captured. Lilacs Last in the
 1 April.  Sheridan repels a Confederate Dooryard Bloom'd";
assault at the Battle of the Five Forks Drum-Taps
(Virginia), the last major battle of the war.   Louisa May Alcott,
 3 April.  Union forces take Richmond, the Moods 
capital of the Confederacy; two days later,  Birth of Sui-Sin Far
Lincoln visits the site. (Edith Maude Eaton) (d.
 8 April. Civil War officially ends when Lee 1914)
surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Court  Julia C. Collins, The
House.  Curse of Caste; or, The
 13 April.  The Union begins disbanding its Slave Bride ("possibly
forces. Senate records later showed that the the first serialized novel
Union had enlisted 2,324,516 soldiers, of by a black American
whom 360,000 were killed; the Confederacy woman")
had about a million soldiers, of whom 260,000
were killed. 
 14 April. While watching Our American
Cousin at Ford's Theater, Lincoln is shot by
John Wilkes Booth and dies the following day. 
 Thirteenth Amendment abolishes slavery.
 One of the worst steamship disasters in
American history occurs as the Sultana blows
up on the Mississippi, killing 1700 people,
mostly returning Union soldiers.
 13-27 July . Atlantic cable is completed.  Melville, Battle-Pieces
 30 April. Congress passes the Civil Rights and Aspects of the War
Bill of 1866. (poems) 
 First appearance of a 5-cent coin, soon  John Greenleaf
called "the nickel."  Whittier, Snow-Bound 
 The Sioux nations are angered as the US  Emerson, "Terminus"
Army begins building forts along the Bozeman  Mary Mapes Dodge,
Trail, an important route to the gold fields of Hans Brinker; or, The
Virginia City; Capt. Fetterman and 80 soldiers Silver Skates
are killed.  The Galaxy (New
York), 1866-1878, was
founded to counter the
limitations of The Atlantic
Monthly. Among its
contributors were Mark
Twain, Henry James,
Rose Terry Cooke,
Rebecca Harding Davis,
and Walt Whitman.
 31 January. All males over 21 are granted  George Washington
suffrage in US territories Harris, Sut Lovingood
 2 March. First Reconstruction Act passed Yarns 
over the president's veto; the second is  William Dean Howells,
passed on March 23. Venetian Life 
 30 March. Secretary of State Seward  John W. DeForest,
purchases Alaska from Russia  for $7.2 Miss Ravenel's
million.  Congressional critics call this Conversion from
"Seward's Folly." Secession to Loyalty 
 17 July.  Congress passes the Third  Augusta Evans, St.
Reconstruction Act over a presidential veto.  Elmo 
Instead of a majority calculated from the  Emerson, May-Day
number of registered voters, only a majority and Other Poems
vote by  those voting will be necessary to  Elizabeth Stoddard,
confirm ratification and readmission of states. Temple House
 Nebraska becomes the 37th state to join the  Mark Twain, The
US. Celebrated Jumping
 An American era begins as Jesse Chisholm Frog of Calveras County
maps the Chisholm trail, one of several routes and Other Sketches
over which cowboys drive cattle from Texas to  Bret Harte,
the railheads of Kansas City, Cheyenne, Condensed Novels and
Dodge City, and Abilene.  Other Papers
 Fourteenth Amendment grants full  Louisa May Alcott,
citizenship to all (including African Americans) Little Women 
born in the US except Native Americans.   Bret Harte, "The Luck
 13 March-6 May. Impeachment trial of of Roaring Camp" 
President Andrew Johnson ends in his  Elizabeth Stuart
acquittal. Phelps Ward, The Gates
 Ulysses S. Grant and his vice-presidential Ajar 
candidate, Schuyler Colfax, are elected by a  Mary Jane Holmes,
landslide. The Guardian Angel
 Custer moves against Chief Black Kettle,  Horatio Alger, Ragged
destroying an Indian village and all its Dick
inhabitants.  Lippincott's Magazine
(Philadelphia), 1868-
1916
Overland Monthly (San
Francisco), 1868-1875;
1883-1935, publisher of
Jack London, among
others.
 Ulysses S. Grant becomes president (1869-  Mark Twain, The
77).  Innocents Abroad 
 10 May. Union Pacific-Central Pacific  Louisa May Alcott,
transcontinental railroad is completed as the Good Wives (Little
two lines meet at Promontory Point, Utah. Women II) 
 Wyoming passes first woman's suffrage act.  Stowe, Oldtown Folks 
 Susan B. Anthony elected president of the  Harte, "Tennessee's
American Equal Rights Association. Partner" and "The
 Number of justices on the Supreme Court Outcasts of Poker Flat"
rises from 7 to 9.  Appleton's Journal
 Elizabeth Cady Stanton elected president of (New York), 1869-1881,
the National Woman Suffrage Association, publisher of Constance
which demands federal voting rights for Fenimore Woolson,
women. among others. 
 First Sioux War ends with the Treaty of Fort
Laramie; the US agrees to abandon Forts
Smith, Kearney, and Reno.
 24 September. Earlier in the year, Jay Gould
and Jay Fisk attempted to drive up the price of
gold and corner the market.  On this day,
"Black Friday,"  President Grant releases $4
million and drives the price down, an action
that causes a stock-market panic.