| Campaigns/Elections |
|
Republican governors Andrew of Massachusetts and Ramsey of Minnesota easily re-elected |
| Battles/Soldiers |
|
Brigadier General Grant sails from Cairo, Illinois to attack Confederate positions along the Mississippi |
| Campaigns/Elections |
|
In Maryland, Unionists triumph in the statewide elections and Augustus Bradford is elected as governor |
| Personal |
|
James Naismith, inventor of basketball, is born in northern Ontario the son of Scottish immigrants |
| Battles/Soldiers |
|
In Mississippi County, Missouri, Brigadier General Grant and his men overrun a Confederate camp at Belmont |
| US/the World |
|
Confederate diplomats James Mason and John Slidell sail from Havana for Europe aboard a British ship |
| Battles/Soldiers |
|
In eastern Kentucky, Union forces drive back an attempted Confederate ambush at Ivy Mountain |
| Battles/Soldiers |
-
|
In Eastern Tennessee, local Unionists burn five railroad bridges prompting a furious Confederate response |
| US/the World |
|
A U.S. warship intercepts and boards a British mail ship off Cuba to arrest Confederate diplomats |
| Battles/Soldiers |
|
Union forces occupy Pikesville, Kentucky having driven Confederate forces from eastern Kentucky |
| Education/Culture |
|
The first documented North American football game is played University College in Toronto |
| Battles/Soldiers |
|
Major-General Henry Wager Halleck, "Old Brains," is appointed to head the new Union Department of the Missouri |
| Education/Culture |
|
French explorer and anthropologist Henri Mouhot dies of fever in Laos, aged thirty-five |
| Lawmaking/Litigating |
|
In Richmond, Confederates select prisoners for trial in retaliation for Northern convictions of privateers |
| Battles/Soldiers |
-
|
In western Virginia Confederate cavalry raid and capture Guyandotte with the help of local citizens |
| Science/Technology |
|
On the Potomac, Thaddeus Lowe's balloon carrier is towed into position off Mattawoman Creek |
| US/the World |
|
In Beijing, Imperial China sets up its first office of foreign affairs |
| US/the World |
|
In Lisbon, King Pedro V of Portugal dies of cholera at the age of twenty-four |
| Science/Technology |
|
On the Potomac, Thaddeus Lowe launches the first balloon observation flight from a naval craft |
| Battles/Soldiers |
|
Confederate General Leonidas Polk hurt in artillery accident at Columbus, Kentucky, seven others killed |
| Battles/Soldiers |
|
Union warship captures Confederate privateer off the Bahamas |
| Lawmaking/Litigating |
|
At his Washington D.C. home, General George McClellan snubs the President and Secretary of State |
| Lawmaking/Litigating |
|
Jefferson Davis declares a day of "fasting, humiliation, and prayer" across the Confederacy |
| Religion/Philosophy |
|
The United States Christian Commission is set up at a conference in New York City |
| Science/Technology |
|
The new 730-ton side wheel gunboat U.S.S. Miami is launched at the Philadelphia Navy Yard |
| Education/Culture |
|
In Hamburg, Germany, Brahms' Quartet in G Minor debuts, with Clara Schumann at the piano |
| Battles/Soldiers |
|
Confederate Brigadier-General Henry H. Sibley marches from San Antonio to launch his invasion of New Mexico |
| Lawmaking/Litigating |
|
In Union-occupied North Carolina, loyalists meet in convention, rescind secession, and name a new governor |
| Education/Culture |
|
Julia Ward Howe composes the verses that will become the words to "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" |
| Battles/Soldiers |
|
In the Atlantic, the Confederate commerce raider Nashville burns the U.S. merchantman Harvey Birch |
