The sun rose over central Pennsylania at approximately four-thirty in the morning and set at seven-thirty in the evening, giving almost exactly fifteen hours of daylight.  A Full Moon began shortly after midnight. (By John Osborne)

The summer of 1863 began officially at 5:54 pm, Washington DC time. (By John Osborne)

In the Washington, DC and Baltimore, Maryland region, the sun rose at 4:33 a.m. and set at 7:19 p.m. on this day.  The daylight hours lasted for fourteen hours and fifty-four minutes.  A New Moon began in the early hours of this morning.  (By John Osborne)

General H.H. Sibley had gathered at Camp Pope, near present-day Redwood Falls, an impressive force numbering 3,320 men, mostly Minnesota infantry, for operations against the Plains Indians in western Minnesota and the Dakotas.  He had been ordered to punish the Santee Sioux for their spring raiding and set out to push hostile groups into the Dakotas.  In an ungainly and slow march west, Sibley's force, the largest up to that date to campaign against Native Americans, eventually forced three significant engagements in a four month campaign.  (By John Osborne)