← 1861 1860 1859 1862 in the United States → 1863 1864 1865
Decades:	1840s 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s
See also:	History of the United States (1849–1865) Timeline of United States history (1860–1899) List of years in the United States

Events from the year1862 in the United States.

• President:Abraham Lincoln (R-Illinois)
• Vice President:Hannibal Hamlin (R-Maine)
• Chief Justice:Roger B. Taney (Maryland)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives:Galusha A. Grow (R-Pennsylvania)
• Congress:37th

• January 3 –American Civil War:Battle of Cockpit Point fought inVirginia.
• January 8 –American Civil War:Battle of Roan's Tan Yard inMissouri.
• January 10 –John Gately Downey, 7thGovernor of California, is succeeded byAmasa Leland Stanford.
• January 19 –American Civil War:Battle of Mill Springs inKentucky.
• January 30 – The first U.S.ironclad warship,USS Monitor, is launched atGreenpoint, Brooklyn.
• January 31 –Alvan Graham Clark makes the first observation ofSirius B, awhite dwarf star, through an eighteen-inch telescope atNorthwestern University.
• In theGreat Flood of 1862,San Francisco receives 24.49 inches (622.0 mm) of rainfall for January, its highest monthly rainfall on record, and the “rain year” total from July 1861 to June of 49.27 inches (1,251.5 mm) is also the highest ever.^[1]

• February 1 –Julia Ward Howe'sBattle Hymn of the Republic is published for the first time in theAtlantic Monthly.
• February 6 –American Civil War: GeneralUlysses S. Grant gives theUnion Army its first major victory of the war, by capturingFort Henry, Tennessee.
• February 15 –American Civil War: GeneralUlysses S. Grant attacksFort Donelson,Tennessee and captures it the next day.
• February 21 –American Civil War:Battle of Valverde fought nearFort Craig inNew Mexico Territory.
• February 22 –American Civil War:Jefferson Davis is officially inaugurated inRichmond, Virginia, to a 6-year term as president of theConfederate States of America.

• March 7 –American Civil War:The Battle of Pea Ridge – The Confederates are shut out ofMissouri.
• March 8 –American Civil War: The ironcladCSS Virginia (formerly USSMerrimack) is launched atHampton Roads,Virginia.
• March 8–9 –American Civil War:Battle of Hampton Roads – The first battle between twoironclad warships,USS Monitor andCSS Virginia.
• March 13 –American Civil War: The U.S. federal government forbids all Union army officers from returning fugitive slaves, thus effectively annulling theFugitive Slave Law of 1850 and setting the stage for theEmancipation Proclamation.
• March 14 –American Civil War:Battle of New Bern fought inNorth Carolina.
• March 26–28 –American Civil War:Battle of Glorieta Pass – InNew Mexico, Union forces succeed in stopping theConfederate invasion ofNew Mexico Territory.

• April 5 –American Civil War:Battle of Yorktown – The battle begins when Union forces under GeneralGeorge B. McClellan close in on theConfederate capitalRichmond, Virginia.
• April 6–7 –American Civil War:Battle of Shiloh – Union Army under GeneralUlysses S. Grant defeats theConfederates nearShiloh, Tennessee.
• April 10 –American Civil War:Battle of Fort Pulaski –Union blockade closesSavannah, Georgia. TheParrott rifle, afield artillery weapon, demonstrates its ability to make masonry forts obsolete.
• April 12 –American Civil War:Great Locomotive Chase (Andrews' Raid) –Union volunteers steal Confederate steam railroad locomotiveThe General in an attempt to sabotage theWestern and Atlantic Railroad.
• April 16 – Slavery inWashington, D.C. is abolished when theDistrict of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act becomes law.
• April 25 –American Civil War:Capture of New Orleans – Forces under Union AdmiralDavid Farragut occupy theConfederate city ofNew Orleans, Louisiana, securing access to theMississippi.
• April 26
  • American Civil War: The besiegedConfederate garrison atFort Macon,North Carolina surrenders.
  • The California Anti-Coolie Act.

• May 2 – TheCalifornia State Normal School (laterSan Jose State University) is created by an Act of the California legislature.
• May 5 –American Civil War:Battle of Williamsburg –McClellan andLongstreet fight an inconclusive battle inWilliamsburg, Virginia.
• May 9 –United States Naval Academy is relocated fromAnnapolis, Maryland toNewport, Rhode Island.
• May 11 –American Civil War: The ironcladCSSVirginia is scuttled in theJames River northwest ofNorfolk, Virginia.
• May 15 – PresidentAbraham Lincoln signs a bill into law creating the United States Bureau of Agriculture (later renamed theDepartment of Agriculture).
• May 20 – PresidentAbraham Lincoln signs theHomestead Act into law.

• June 1 –American Civil War:
  • Robert E. Lee takes command of theArmy of Northern Virginia.
  • Battle of Fair Oaks – Both sides claim victory.
• June 4 –American Civil War:Confederate troops evacuateFort Pillow on theMississippi River, leaving the way clear for Union troops to takeMemphis, Tennessee.
• June 5 – PresidentAbraham Lincoln signs a bill into law allowing for the appointment of diplomats toLiberia andHaiti, the first time Congress had recognized a Black government.^[2]
• June 6 –American Civil War:First Battle of Memphis – Union forces captureMemphis, Tennessee, from theConfederates
• June 8 –American Civil War:Battle of Cross Keys –Confederate forces under GeneralStonewall Jackson save theArmy of Northern Virginia from a Union assault on the James Peninsula led by GeneralGeorge B. McClellan.
• June 12 – John Winter Robinson,Secretary of State of Kansas, is convicted and removed from office as the result of abond scandal, becoming the first state executive officers to beimpeached and removed from office in U.S. history.
• June 19 –Congress passes legislation outlawing slavery in U.S. territories.
• June 26 –American Civil War:Battle of Mechanicsville – Confederate GeneralRobert E. Lee defeats Union GeneralGeorge McClellan in the first of theSeven Days' Battles.

• July –Taps first sounded in the Union Army.
• July 1
  • PresidentAbraham Lincoln signs into law thePacific Railway Acts, authorizing construction of thefirst transcontinental railroad.^[3]
  • The Bureau of Internal Revenue, forerunner of theInternal Revenue Service, is founded.
• July 2 – President Abraham Lincoln signs theMorrill Land Grant Act into law, creating land-grant colleges to teach agricultural and mechanical sciences across the U.S.
• July 8 –Theodore Timby is granted a U.S. patent for discharging guns in a revolvingturret, using electricity.
• July 16 –American Civil War:David G. Farragut becomes the firstUnited States Navyrear admiral.
• July 23 – American Civil War:Henry W. Halleck takes command of the Union Army.
• July 24 –Martin van Buren, 8th president of the United States, dies atKinderhook, New York, aged 79.
• July 29 – American Civil War: Confederate spyBelle Boyd is arrested by Union forces after her lover betrays her.

• August 2 –American Civil War: Skirmish atTaberville, Missouri – Union forces forceConfederate troops to march south, near Taberville.
• August 4 –1862 Brooklyn riot: A mob consisting chiefly ofIrish Americans targets a group of about 20African American workers at atobacco factory in theCobble Hill neighborhood.
• August 5 –American Civil War:Battle of Baton Rouge – Along theMississippi River nearBaton Rouge, Louisiana,Confederate troops drive Union forces back into the city.
• August 6 –American Civil War: TheConfederate ironcladCSS Arkansas is scuttled on theMississippi River after suffering damage in a battle withUSS Essex nearBaton Rouge, Louisiana.
• August 9 –American Civil War:Battle of Cedar Mountain –Confederate GeneralStonewall Jackson narrowly defeats Union forces under GeneralJohn Pope at Cedar Mountain, Virginia.
• August 14 – U. S. PresidentAbraham Lincoln meets with a group of prominent African-Americans – the first time a president has done so. He suggests Black people should migrate toAfrica orCentral America, but this advice is rejected.
• August 17 –Dakota War: ALakota (Sioux) uprising begins inMinnesota as Lakota Sioux attack white settlements along theMinnesota River. They are overwhelmed by the U.S. military six weeks later.
• August 19
  • Dakota War: During an uprising inMinnesota,Lakota warriors decide not to attack heavily defendedFort Ridgely and instead turn to the settlement ofNew Ulm, killing white settlers along the way.
  • Horace Greeley publishes an editorial, "The Prayer of Twenty Millions", in theNew York Tribune, in which he urges PresidentAbraham Lincoln to make abolition of slavery an official aim of the Union war effort.
• August 28–30 –American Civil War:Second Battle of Bull Run – Confederate forces inflict a crushing defeat on Union GeneralJohn Pope.
• August 29 –Bureau of Engraving and Printing is formed and begins operation.

• September 1 –American Civil War:Battle of Chantilly –Confederate GeneralRobert E. Lee leads his forces in an attack on retreating Union troops inChantilly, Virginia, driving them away.
• September 2 –American Civil War: PresidentAbraham Lincoln reluctantly restores Union GeneralGeorge B. McClellan to full command after GeneralJohn Pope's disastrous defeat at theBattle of Second Bull Run.
• September 5 –American Civil War: In theConfederacy's first invasion of the North, GeneralRobert E. Lee leads 55,000 men of theArmy of Northern Virginia across thePotomac River atWhite's Ford nearLeesburg, Virginia, intoMaryland.
• September 17
  • American Civil War:Battle of Antietam –Union forces defeatConfederate troops atSharpsburg, Maryland, in the bloodiest single-day battle in U.S. history, with over 22,000 casualties.
  • American Civil War: TheAllegheny Arsenal explosion results in the single largest civilian disaster during the war, with 78 workers – mostly young women – being killed.
• September 19 –American Civil War:Battle of Iuka –Union troops under Major GeneralWilliam Rosecrans defeat aConfederate force commanded by Major GeneralSterling Price atIuka, Mississippi.
• September 22 –American Civil War: Preliminary announcement of theEmancipation Proclamation byPresidentAbraham Lincoln: From January 1, 1863, slaves in the Confederate States will be considered free.

• October 8 –American Civil War:Battle of Perryville – Union forces under GeneralDon Carlos Buell halt theConfederate invasion ofKentucky by defeating troops led by GeneralBraxton Bragg atPerryville, Kentucky.
• October 11 –American Civil War: In the aftermath of theBattle of Antietam,Confederate GeneralJ. E. B. Stuart and his men lootChambersburg, Pennsylvania, during a raid into the North.
• October 24 –American Civil War:Tonkawa massacre – 300 members of the Confederacy-supporting Tonkawa tribe members taking refuge at the Wichita Agency (modern-dayFort Sill) are attacked by a large group of pro-Union Indians. An estimated 137 Tonkawas are killed, including their chief,Ha-shu-ka-na ("Can't Kill Him"). The completely-demoralized survivors flee to Fort Griffin inTexas in 1863. They return to Indian Territory in 1885 and settle near Fort Oakland (modern-dayTonkawa, Oklahoma).

• November 4 –Richard Jordan Gatling patents theGatling gun.
• November 5
  • American Civil War: PresidentAbraham Lincoln removesGeorge B. McClellan as commander of theUnion Army.Ambrose Burnside is assigned command of theArmy of the Potomac.
  • Dakota War: InMinnesota, more than 300 SanteeSioux are found guilty of rape and murder of white settlers and are sentenced to hang.
• November 14 –American Civil War: Union PresidentAbraham Lincoln approves GeneralAmbrose Burnside's plan to capture theConfederate capital atRichmond, Virginia (this leads to a dramatic Union defeat at theBattle of Fredericksburg on December 13).
• November 28 –American Civil War:Battle of Cane Hill –Union troops led by General John Blunt push backConfederate forces commanded by GeneralJohn Marmaduke into northwesternArkansas'Boston Mountains.

• December 1 – In hisState of the Union Address, PresidentAbraham Lincoln reaffirms the necessity of ending slavery as affirmed in theEmancipation Proclamation.
• December 2 – The firstU.S. Navyhospital ships enter service.
• December 12 –American Civil War:Yazoo Pass Expedition – UnionironcladgunboatUSS Cairo is sunk by a remotely-detonated "torpedo" (naval mine) while clearing mines from theYazoo River, the first armored ship sunk by mine.
• December 13 –American Civil War:Battle of Fredericksburg – TheUnion Army suffers massive casualties and abandons attempts to capture the Confederate capital ofRichmond, Virginia.
• December 17 –General Order No. 11, expelling allJews in his military district, is issued by GeneralUlysses S. Grant (it is rescinded a few weeks later).
• December 20 –American Civil War:Confederate ArmyBrigadier GeneralNathan Bedford Forrest occupiesTrenton, Kentucky.
• December 26 –Dakota War: William D. Duly hangs 38 DakotaSioux inMinnesota.
• December 26–29 –American Civil War:Battle of Chickasaw Bayou – Another victory for theConfederate Army, outnumbered 2 to 1, results in 6 times as many Union casualties, defeating several assaults coordinated by Union commanderWilliam T. Sherman.
• December 30 –USS Monitor sinks offCape Hatteras,North Carolina.
• December 31 –American Civil War:
  • PresidentAbraham Lincoln signs an act that admitsWest Virginia to the Union (thus dividing Virginia in two).
  • TheBattle of Stones River opens nearMurfreesboro, Tennessee.

• Asmallpox epidemic breaks out in California.
• Stephen Foster writes "Willie Has Gone to War" (lyrics by George Cooper).^[4]

• American Civil War (1861–1865)

• January 9 –Carrie Clark Ward, silent film character actress (died1926)
• January 10 –Harriet Mabel Spalding, litterateur and poet (died1935)
• January 15 –Loie Fuller, dancer (died1928)
• January 24 –Edith Wharton, fiction writer (died1937)
• January 31 –Robert Ford, American outlaw, killer ofJesse James (died1892)
• February 2
  • George Arthur Boeckling, businessman, president of Cedar Point Pleasure Company (died1931)
  • Edward Nelson Woodruff, politician (died1947)
• February 7 –Bernard Maybeck, Arts and Crafts architect (died1957)
• February 18 –Charles M. Schwab, steel magnate (died1939)
• March 2 –John Jay Chapman, writer (died1923)
• March 13 –Jane Delano, founder of the American Red Cross Nursing Service (died1919)
• March 21 –Elmer Samuel Hosmer, composer (died1945)
• March 24 –Frank Weston Benson, Impressionist painter (died1951)
• March 25 –William E. Johnson, leader of theAnti-Saloon League (died1945)
• April 2 –Nicholas Murray Butler, president ofColumbia University and winner of theNobel Peace Prize (died1947)
• April 11 –Charles Evans Hughes, lawyer and statesman (died1948)
• April 26 –Edmund C. Tarbell, Impressionist painter (died1938)
• May 6
  • Jeff Davis, 20th Governor of Arkansas from 1901 to 1907 and U.S. Senator from Arkansas from 1907 to 1913 (died1913)
  • Oscar Underwood, U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1915 to 1927 (died1929)
• May 18 –William Schmedtgen, illustrator (died1936)
• May 27 –John Kendrick Bangs, author and satirist (died1922)
• June 10 – Caroline Louise Dudley, laterMrs. Leslie Carter, stage and silent screen actress (died1937)
• June 12 –James H. Brady, U.S. Senator from Idaho from 1913 to 1918 (died1918)
• June 18 –Carolyn Wells, prolific novelist and poet (died1942)^[5]
• July 15 –Frank Putnam Flint, U.S. Senator from California from 1905 to 1911 (died1929)
• July 16 –Ida B. Wells, journalist, suffragist and anti-lynching crusader (died1931)
• July 27 –Arthur Starr Eakle, mineralogist (died1931)
• July 29 –Robert Reid, Impressionist painter (died1928)
• August 11 –Carrie Jacobs-Bond, songwriter (died1946)
• August 15 –Adam Emory Albright, painter (died 1957)
• August 16 –Amos Alonzo Stagg, football player (died1965)
• August 30 –Lawrence C. Phipps, U.S. Senator from Colorado from 1919 to 1931 (died1958)
• September 7 –Edgar Speyer, international financier and philanthropist (died 1932 in Germany)
• September 11
  • Hawley Harvey Crippen, medical practitioner and uxoricide (hanged1910 in the United Kingdom)
  • O. Henry, born William Sydney Porter, short-story writer (died1910)
• October 6
  • Joseph Weldon Bailey, U.S. Senator from 1901 to 1911 (died 1929)
  • Albert J. Beveridge, U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1899 to 1911 (died1927)
• October 26 –Thomas J. Preston, Jr., Professor ofArcheology atPrinceton University, second husband ofFrances Cleveland (widow of PresidentGrover Cleveland) (died1955)
• November 3 –Henry George, Jr., politician (died1916)
• November 14 –George Washington Vanderbilt II, businessman (died1914)
• November 19 –Billy Sunday, baseball player, evangelist and prohibitionist (died1935)
• December 3 –Charles Grafly, sculptor (died 1929)
• December 5 –William Walker Atkinson, spiritual writer (died1932)
• December 16 –John Fox, Jr., novelist and journalist (died1919)

• January 10 –Samuel Colt, inventor (born1814)^[6]
• January 18 –John Tyler, tenthpresident of the United States from 1841 to 1845, tenthvice president of the United States from March to April 1841 (born1790)
• February 11 –Luther V. Bell, psychiatric physician (born1806)
• February 20 –William Wallace "Willie" Lincoln, third son of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln (born1850)
• March 2 –Frederick W. Lander, railroad surveyor, poet and Union general, died of pneumonia contracted on active service (born1821)
• March 18 –Charles Bird King, portrait artist who notably painted Native American delegates visiting Washington, D.C. (born1785)
• April 6
  • Albert Sidney Johnston, Confederate general, killed duringBattle of Shiloh (born1803)
  • Fitz James O'Brien, science fiction pioneer (born1828 in Ireland)
• April 10 –W. H. L. Wallace, Union general, died of wounds received at Battle of Shiloh (born1821)
• April 12 –Theodore Frelinghuysen, running mate ofHenry Clay in 1844 (born1787)
• April 19 –Louis P. Harvey, Governor of Wisconsin (born1820)
• May 6 –Henry David Thoreau, transcendentalist author and philosopher (born1817)
• May 21
  • Edwin Pearce Christy, founder ofChristy's Minstrels, suicide by defenestration (born1815)
  • John Drew Sr., actor, died in domestic accident (born1827 in Ireland)
• July 24 –Martin Van Buren, eighth president of the United States from 1837 to 1841, eighth vice president of the United States from 1833 to 1837 (born1782)
• August 30 –John Hugh Means, 64th governor of South Carolina from 1850 to 1852 (born1812)
• September 1 –Philip Kearny, United States Army officer (born1815)
• September 18? –Septimus Norris, steam locomotive designer (born1818)
• November 17 –Mary Whitwell Hale, teacher, school founder, and hymnwriter (born1810)
• December 13 –Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb, Confederate general, killed duringBattle of Fredericksburg (born1823)
• December 18 –Barbara Fritchie, Civil War patriot (born 1766)

• Timeline of United States history (1860–1899)

• "American Annual Cyclopaedia ... 1862",American Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events of the Year, NY: D. Appleton & Co.: 14 v – via HathiTrust

• Media related to1862 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons

• 1862 in the United States
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