| Battles/Soldiers |
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|
In Louisiana, the garrison of Fort Jackson mutinies and the fort surrenders soon after |
| US/the World |
|
New British built steamer Oreto arrives in the Bahamas, a secret purchase of the Confederate Navy |
| Battles/Soldiers |
|
New warship Sacramento launched at the Portsmouth Navy Yard in eastern Maine |
| Battles/Soldiers |
|
In northern Alabama, Union troops capture the Bridgeport railroad bridge over the Tennessee River |
| Battles/Soldiers |
|
In Richmond, Virginia, Union agent Timothy Webster becomes the first spy executed during the war |
| Lawmaking/Litigating |
|
U.S. House censures former Secretary of War Simon Cameron for his lax fiscal dealings while in office |
| Battles/Soldiers |
|
Major General Benjamin Butler begins his notorious eight months as military governor of New Orleans |
| Battles/Soldiers |
|
In Virginia, Union artillery outside Yorktown delivers a preliminary barrage on Confederate defenses |
| Science/Technology |
|
In Philadelphia, the U.S. Navy's first submarine, French-designed and called the Alligator, is launched |
| US/the World |
|
Secretary of State Seward tells all foreign diplomats New Orleans will soon again be open for business |
| Battles/Soldiers |
-
|
In eastern Virginia, thousands of Confederate troops make a stealthy withdrawal from Yorktown |
| Battles/Soldiers |
|
Captured blockade runner packed with munitions arrives in New York harbor as a U.S. Navy prize |
| Battles/Soldiers |
|
Near Williamsburg, Virginia, forty-thousand pursuing Union troops clash with the Confederate rearguard |
| US/the World |
|
In Mexico, seven thousand French troops are repulsed in their attack on the town of Puebla |
| Battles/Soldiers |
|
Union telegrapher dies in a Washington DC hospital of wounds from a booby-trap left in Yorktown |
| Lawmaking/Litigating |
|
In Cincinnati District Court, Justice Swayne quashes an indictment for treason on constitutional grounds |
| Battles/Soldiers |
|
William Stoker enters Company H of the 18th Texas Infantry in Jefferson, Texas |
| Battles/Soldiers |
|
At Eltham's Landing, Confederate units thwart Union attempts to cut off their retreat from Yorktown |
| Battles/Soldiers |
|
Off Norfolk, Virginia, President Lincoln observes a bombardment of Confederate positions |
| Lawmaking/Litigating |
|
Without authority, Union General David Hunter declares all slaves in three states "forever free" |
| Battles/Soldiers |
-
|
Confederate forces evacuate Pensacola, Florida burning installations and stores before leaving |
| Battles/Soldiers |
|
Captain Charles H. Davis replaces Commodore A.H. Foote as commander of the Union's Mississippi Flotilla |
| Crime/Disasters |
-
|
In New York, massive wild fires rage across Long Island for days destroying farms, homes, and animals |
| Crime/Disasters |
|
Deadly daytime fire devastates residential sections of Troy, New York |
| Crime/Disasters |
|
Freak railroad accident hits Indiana governor's train and kills the state's Superintendent of Instruction |
| Battles/Soldiers |
|
In Virginia, a Union amphibious operation forces the surrender of Norfolk and its naval installations |
| Business/Industry |
|
In Philadelphia, War of 1812 hero Charles Stewart does the honors at launch of new Union ironclad |
| Battles/Soldiers |
|
Sharp half-hour naval engagement on the Mississippi River below Fort Pillow in Tennessee |
| Crime/Disasters |
|
Notorious outlaw is tracked down and killed in Miami County, Kansas |
| Battles/Soldiers |
|
In Virginia, the famous and feared Confederate ironclad "Merrimac" is burned to avoid its capture |
