Following the massacre at Sand Creek, Cheyenne rage forged alliances and an effective force of more than two thousand mounted warriors. They had launched a series of attacks in Colorado, burning out ranches and even attacking smaller towns. They made an assault on the garrison at Platte Bridge, Wyoming, an important link on the immigrant trail.  Beaten off, the next day they attacked and wiped out a military wagon train approaching the fort.  Troop losses were 28 killed.  Cheyenne losses were not accurately counted.  (By John Osborne)  

Treasury Secretary Hugh McCullough had recommended the founding of a governmental unit to battle the rampant counterfeiting of United States paper money.  One estimate put the percentage of fake bills in circulation in 1865 perhaps as high as 50%. The United States Secret Service began operation this day under its chief William P. Wood and achieved instant success in the fight against the counterfeiters.  The Service did not begin its more famous role of protection of officials until 1894.  (By John Osborne)  

The first edition of English mathematician Charles Dodgson's children's book Alice in Wonderland, published under his more famous pseudonym of Lewis Carroll, was printed by the Oxford University Press for MacMillan Publishers.  The original run of 2000 was halted when the book's illustrator, John Tenneil, complained of the quality of his pages.  Only around fifty copies were sold and the rest donated to children's hospitals.  Republication took place in October 1865, with a new print shop. (By John Osborne)

The Chickasaw Nation, led by its governor Winchester Colbert, had fought along with much of the Five Nations in alliance with the Confederacy.  Colbert had fled to Texas but returned to surrender his nation to the United States, the final Confederate community to capitulate in the long and bloody American Civil War.  (By John Osborne)