Good Friday was celebrated this day in the western Christian calendar for 1862. commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus outside Jerusalem.  (By John Osborne)

Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter, was celebrated this day in the western Christian calendar for 1862, commemorating the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.  (By John Osborne)

More than one hundred Articles of War, set by Congress, governed the conduct of the nation's armed forces.  Reacting to recent developments, Congress added an additional article prohibiting Army and Navy officers from using the troops under them "for the purpose of returning fugitives from service or labor, who may have escaped from any persons to whom such service or labor is claimed to be due."  The penalty for violating this article was set as dismissal from the service.  (By John Osborne)

The United States Congress passed and President Lincoln signed an appropriation of $3000 setting up a Joint Commission on the Preservation of Atlantic Fisheries aimed at preserving and allocating Atlantic fishing stocks.  A commissioner was to be named to meet with commissioners appointed from Britain and France to discuss ways of reaching these goals. (By John Osborne)  

The Congressional Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War had largely selected Brigadier General Chales Stone as scapegoat for the Ball's Bluff defeat in late 1861 and he was arrested held at Forts Lafayette and Hamilton in New York without charge. until his release on August 16, 1862.  Friends in the Massachusetts Legislature attempted to pass a resolution to expedite a trial for the disgraced officer but this was voted down as an interference with federal authorities.  Stone was released without explanation in August 1862. (By John Osborne)

Union troops under Colonel John White Geary advanced on the Confederate town of Middleburg in Loudon County, Virginia. Withdrawing Confederate forces made a brief attempt to defend the small town of around eight hundred people but a heady charge of the 28th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry through the streets ended resistance and the Confederate cavalry retreated.. Losses were light on both sides.  (By John Osborne)

The U.S. S. Canandaigua, one of the new steam screw sloops radidly being built for the expanding Union Navy, was launched at the Boston Navy Yard in Charleston, Massachusetts.  More than 1400 tons and 228 feet in length, she was commissioned on August 1, 1862 and assigned to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron where she spent most of the remainder of the war.  Following the Confederate defeat, the Canandaigua served on the European station and with the Atlantic Fleet.  She was broken up for scrap in 1884.  (By John Osborne)

Reverend Samual Aaron, a well-known abolitionist Baptist minister from nearby Mount Holly, attempted to give a public lecture at the City Hall in Burlington, New Jersey.  His topic was "The Constitution" but his abolitionist reputation and his attitude towards the conduct of the war had attracted a raucous and drunken crowd of protestors whose charges against the stage and throwing of rotten eggs brought the event to near riot. The town mayor restored order and one man was arrested.  (By John Osborne)