f maintaining unremitting pressure on the South..
23/5/1864, Battle of North Anna; Confederate victory.
21/5/1864, The Battle of Spottsylvania Courthouse ended.
15/5/1864, Battle of Drewry’s Bluff; Confederate victory.
11/5/1864, Battle of Yellow Tavern; Unionist victory.
9/3/1864, General Ulyssses Grant was made Commander in Chief of the Union forces in the American Civil War.
2/3/1864, US President Lincoln rejected Confederate General Lee’s call for peace talks, demanding surrender.
23/11/1863, The Battle of Chattanooga in the American Civil War. The Confederates under Bragg were heavily defeated.
19/11/1863. Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, at the dedication of the military cemetery at Gettysburg. He said ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth’.
2/11/1863, US President Lincoln was invited to make a speech at the dedication of the new cemetery at Gettysburg. Jefferson Davis visited Charleston and publicly stated that he believed the city would not fall.
17/10/1863, US Secretary of War Edwin Stanton boarded a train in Indianapolis, with orders for him to assume command of the Military Division of the Mississippi.
3/10/1863. President Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November to be a national holiday of Thanksgiving.
19/9/1863, The Battle of Chickamauga in the American Civil War. Confederate forces under Bragg won, but at a cost of over 2,000 dead and 14,600 wounded.
13/9/1863, Cyrus Adler, US historian (died 1940) was born.
21/8/1863, The Quantrill raid, on Lawrence, Kansas.
11/7/1863, Conscription began for the Unionist Army in the US Civil war. Draft riots broke out in New York and other cities; 1,200 people were killed.
4/7/1863. Confederate forces under General Joseph Pemberton surrendered unconditionally to Federal troops who had besieged Vicksburg since May. This effectively split Confederate territory in two.
3/7/1863. The Battle of Gettysburg,, Pennsylvania, in the American Civil War, ended with the Confederate Army under General Robert E Lee routed and over 50,000 dead or wounded. The Union victory was under General Meade
1/7/1863, The Battle of Gettysburg began. It ended on 3/7/1863 with a Unionist victory, although both sides lost heavily (Unionists, 23,000; Confederates, 25,000). With his defeat at Gettysburg, General Lee retreated having lost any hopes of foreign support for his cause.
20/6/1863. West Virginia became the 35th State to join the Union.
6/5/1863, Lee (Confederate) defeated Hooker (Unionist) at the Battle of Chancellorsville.
3/5/1863, Despite a Confederate victory, their best General, Stonewall Jackson, was seriously injured. This day his arm was amputated; on 10/5/1863 he died of pneumonia.
3/3/1863. President Lincoln signed the Conscription Act, compelling US citizens to report for duty in the Civil War or pay US$300. This would bolster the army and top up the war coffers.
13/12/1862, At the Battle of Fredericksburg in the American Civil War, Lee’s Confederate forces defeated Major General Burnside’s soldiers, who were attempting to capture the town of Fredericksburg, despite being heavily outnumbered.
22/9/1862, In a deliberate attempt to cause social disruption in the Confederacy, President Lincoln proclaimed the freedom of slaves in the South from 1/1/1863.
17/9/1862, Battle of Antietam, in the American Civil War. Although technically a Confederate victory, both sides suffered major casualties and the Union cause gained enough credibility to issue their Emancipation Proclamation. In particular Lee’s Confederate forces could not now invade the North and had to retreat back into Virginia.
30/8/1862, At the second Battle of Bull Run, Virginia,Union forces under Pope were defeated by Confederate forces under Lee, helped by Jackson.
1/7/1862, Battle of Malvern Mill; Unionist victory.
27/6/1862, Battle of Gaine’s Mill; Confederate victory.
26/6/1862, Battle of Mechanicsville; Unionist victory.
9/6/1862, Battle of Port Republic; Confederate victory.
8/6/1862, Battle of Cross Keys; Confederate victory.
31/5/1862, In the US C