The Cambridge Chronicle published interesting statistics on the recently graduated Harvard class of 1860. The average height was 5 foot 7.6 inches and average weight 142½ pounds. Seventy-nine of the 107 graduates were from Massachusetts. Sixty-one of the class smoked and 46 did not.  Seventy-nine drank, 28 did not.  Fifty-eight were Unitarians and 17 Episcopalians.  Only nine were Democrats, 75 were Republicans, and the rest Union.  (By John Osborne) 

Cornelius Conway Felton, a graduate and long-time professor of Greek at the Cambridge, Massachusetts institution, had been unanimously elected as President of Harvard University in January 1860.  He succeeded the Reverend James Walker, who had resigned.  Felton was officially inaugurated at a ceremony in Cambridge the day after Harvard's 216th Commencement.  He served till his death in February 1862.  (By John Osborne) 

Harvard College held its 219th commencement ceremonies at the First Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  In front of Stephen Douglas, Edward Everett, and Charles Sumner, one hundred and seven students were graduated, the largest class ever up to that point.  Honorary degrees were awarded to, among others, James Walker, the retiring President of the College, and Lord Lyons, the new British ambassador to Washington, DC.  (By John Osborne)

The Commission appointed to examine the working and methods of the U.S. Military Academy and make recommendations for improvements met for the first time on July 17, 1860 at West Point, New York.  Its members included Senators Jefferson Davis and Solomon Foote, Congressman Henry Winter Davis and two Army officer, Major Robert Anderson and Captain A.A. Humphreys.  The Commission heard testimony from a vast set of sources familiar with the academy and its report was printed December 13, 1860.  (By John Osborne)  

Frederick Townsend Ward, an American adventurer who had fought in the Crimean War and with William Walker's filibusters, recruited a small mercenary force in Shanghai and offered its services for cash to beleaguered local leaders beset by Taiping rebels.  On the second attempt, he and his men recaptured the fortress of  Sung-Chiang from rebel forces.  He continued his mercenary efforts at the head of the "Ever Victorious Army" until dying of wounds after the Battle of Cixi on September 21 1862.  (By John Osborne)

Rumors of a Pacific Republic grew when the (Salem) Oregon Statesman published what the Democratic editor, Asahel Bush, called the plans for three American republics.  Two were to be in the East, one northern free labor, and the other northern slave holding, and the other was to be in the Pacific West, with the issue of slavery to be decided.  The Pacific Republic movement had been active in 1860 but died after the election in November.  (By John Osborne)