Just before eight o'clock in the morning, between the Kenwood and Hyde Park stations on the Illinois Central Railroad, then about six miles south of central Chicago, the Cincinatti Express ran into the back of a small local train, crushing its single passenger car. One commuter, a Chicago judge named William Barron was killed and many other injured, seven seriously. No-one was hurt on the express train. (By John Osborne)
In the early morning hours, a work train of the Delaware Railroad set out with around twenty laborers aboard to bring in a load of wood. Just west of St. Georges, Delaware, the drawbridge over the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal was seen to be open. Despite efforts to brake, the entire train crashed into the canal, killing the engineer, the fireman, and five of the workmen. All the rest of the men on the train were injured, some seriously. (By John Osborne)
A morning fire in the central square of Dover, New Hampshire caused the complete destruction of the "Union Block" along with many businesses. Local reports called it the most serious fire in the town in many years. (By John Osborne)
President Lincoln and the First Lady heard selections from Guiseppe Verdi's Il Trovatore and Vicenzo Bellini's Il Puritani at the Washington Theater (also called Carusi's Hall) on the north-east corner of C and Eleventh Street in the capital. The Internal Revenue Service building now occupies that site. (By John Osborne)
St. Louis, Missouri, under Union martial law, had received many refugees who had fled from Confederate control in the south-east of the state. General Henry Halleck ordered a mandatory assessment of relief funds for them from leading St. Louis citizens who openly supported the southern cause. Samuel Engler, a leading merchant, brought his lawyer to contest this arbirary tax and both men were immediately arrested and sent to a military prison. Engler was then ordered out of Union-held Missouri. After this event , the assessments were generally paid. (By John Osborne)
The U.S. Navy purchased aging whaling ships in New England with the goal of sinking them, loaded with stone, in the channels of Southern harbors to facilitate the blockade. The first "stone fleet" was sunk in the main channel at Charleston in mid-December 1861. A second set of sinkings took place the following month with the old whaler India being sunk on this day in the smaller Maffit's Channel in the harbor. (By John Osborne)
The press gave details of Missouri Adjutant-General Chester Harding's report to Provisional Governor Hamilton R. Gamble noting that 33,882 Missourians were in Union uniform under three year enlistments. These included 25,000 infantrymen and 6,000 cavalrymen. In addition, the state had enlisted around 6,000 six-month militiamen. The number of Missourians in Confederate uniform were not enumerated. (By John Osborne)