Civil War Timeline 1863 - Sherman House Museum

January 6–12, 1863

January 6, 1863 Fort Lawrence is burned by Confederate cavalry troops commanded by General John S. Marmaduke. They then join with Colonel Williams Quantrill’s raiders at Springfield, Missouri.
January 7, 1863 President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation is condemned by the Illinois state legislature for “turning the war into a crusade for liberating African-American slaves.”
January 7, 1863 General in Chief Henry Halleck allows General Burnside to proceed with his plan to attack across the Rappahannock River in spite of the hazards of winter marches.
January 8, 1863 General John H. Marmaduke occupies Ozark, Missouri and joins General Sterling Price there. General Marmaduke then leads an unsuccessful raid on Springfield, Missouri.
January 9, 1863 The Army of the Cumberland is reorganized by General Rosecrans with Generals George H. Thomas-XIV Corps, Alexander M. McCook-XX Corps, and Thomas L. Crittenden-XXI Corps.
January 9, 1863 General Marmaduke leads the assault and capture of Hartville, Missouri.
January 9, 1863 Arkansas Post (Fort Hindman) is garrisoned by 5,000 men and mounts 17 cannons. General Thomas J. Churchill commands. General McClernand, aboard Admiral Porter’s flotilla, plans to exchange fire with the fort to cover troop landing, then run past the fort.
January 10, 1863 General Fitz John Porter is cashiered and dropped from army rolls for disobeying orders at the Battle of Second Manassas. The order was overturned in 1879.
January 10, 1863 Admiral Porter’s flotilla consists of the USS Louisville, Baron deKalb, Cincinnati, Lexington, Black Hawk, Glide and Rattler. The troops land under cover of shelling but the flotilla fails to get past the heavy fire from the fort. Rattler has her cabin knocked off.
January 11, 1863 General McClernand attacks Fort Hindman and makes little headway until gunboats reduce the fort’s batteries. General Churchill surrenders late in the day. General McClernand captures 11 cannons, thousands of weapons, tons of ammunition, as well as 4,791 Confederate soldiers.
January 11, 1863 The CSS Alabama, Captain Raphael Semmes commanding, sinks the paddle steamer “Hatteras” ending a 13-minute engagement off Galveston, Texas. Captain Semmes rescues the entire crew. Commanders of Union ships redouble efforts to track and corner or sink the “Alabama”
January 11, 1863 Federal gunboats of Admiral Porter’s flotilla reduce Fort Hindman. “No fort ever received a worse battering,” according to Admiral Porter.
January 11, 1863 Confederate General Marmaduke suffers the loss of 150 men at Wood’s Fork, Missouri while Federal Colonel Lewis Merrill has 35 causalities.
January 12, 1863 The Confederate Congress convenes at Richmond. President Davis condemns the Emancipation Proclamation but still expects eventual European recognition of the Confederacy.

January 13–19, 1863

January 13, 1863 Union Colonel Thomas W. Higginson of the 1st South Carolina Volunteer Infantry begins recruiting former slaves.
January 13, 1863 The USS General Bragg departs Mound City, Arkansas to participate in a joint army-navy expedition along the Mississippi River. Confederate guerrillas are operating along the river and several buildings have been burned.
January 14, 1863 Federal forces are successful against Confederates at Bayou Teche, Louisiana. Federal gunboats attack and sink the CSS Cotton.
January 15, 1863 President Lincoln visits the Washington Navy Yard to confer with Admiral John A.B. Dahlgren and to observe weapons testing.
January 15, 1863 In retaliation for the residents supporting guerrillas, Union troops burn Mound City, Arkansas.
January 16, 1863 Lieutenant John N. Maffitt aboard the CSS Florida evades Union blockaders and slips out of Mobile Bay under darkness. The CSS Florida raider eventually captures 15 Union vessels.
January 17, 1863 President Lincoln signs legislation that allows immediate payment to military personnel. He also asks Congress for currency reform as the North is facing mounting inflation.
January 17, 1863 General U.S. Grant orders General McClernand back to Milliken’s Bend, Louisiana. Grant resents McClernand’s disregard for communication to gain approval of his expedition to Fort Hindeman, Arkansas.
January 18, 1863 The 64th North Carolina under Colonel James A. Keith receives orders from General Henry Heth to sweep through western North Carolina in search of Northern sympathizers. Fifteen suspects are eventually captured. They all deny any bushwhacking activity but are lined up, shot, and buried in shallow graves. Confederate Secretary of War James A. Seddon and North Carolina Governor Zebulon B. Vance call for an investigation but no one is ever punished.
January 18, 1863 Admiral Porter renews his efforts against Vicksburg by ordering all available gunboats to Milliken’s Bend on the Yazoo.
January 19, 1863 General Ambrose E. Burnside attempts to redeem his reputation by ordering his two Grand Divisions (under General Hooker and General William Franklin) to cross the Rappahannock at Bank’s Ford, Virginia. This puts the Army of the Potomac behind General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and only ten miles from Fredericksburg. Good winter weather prevails but does not last.

January 20–26, 1863

January 20, 1863 The infamous “mud march” begins with General Ambrose Burnside leading the Army of the Potomac in an attempted march around the left flank of the Army of Northern Virginia, then cross the Rappahannock River to force a battle in the open. Burnside planned this ill-fated march as a way to bolster his flagging reputation. Rain and knee-deep mud lead to the ultimate abandonment of the attempt within two days and more questions about General Burnside’s leadership abilities.
January 20, 1863 Confederate troops under General John S. Marmaduke capture Patterson, Missouri.
January 21, 1863 General Ulysses S. Grant’s infamous General Order #11, the so called “Jew Order” which was rescinded by General Halleck’s order of January 4,1863, reaches the president’s desk. President Lincoln endorses the revocation stating “...it proscribed an entire religious class, some of whom are fighting in our ranks.”
January 21, 1863 President Lincoln endorses the court martial and dismissal of General Fritz John Porter.
January 21, 1863 Confederate President Jefferson Davis sends General Joseph E. Johnston to Manchester, Tennessee to discuss the abandonment of Murfreesboro (Stone’s River) with General Braxton Bragg. President Davis lacks confidence in General Bragg’s ability to lead. This was brought on by complaints from Bragg’s senior subordinates.
January 22, 1863 General Burnside ends his attempt to flank the Southern Army and falls back to the camp at Falmouth, Virginia. The entire wagon train is mired in mud to the axles.
January 22, 1863 Army of the Tennessee commander General John McClernand is reduced to commander of the XIII Corps and General Grant takes charge of all forces in Arkansas. Grant begins construction of a canal opposite Vicksburg, Mississippi to allow Union shipments of men and supplies to safely bypass Vicksburg’s cannon fire.
January 23, 1863 The soggy, demoralized Army of the Potomac settles into winter quarters at Falmouth, Virginia, directly across from Fredericksburg. General Burnside issues General Order #8 which strips Generals Joseph Hooker, Edwin Sumner, and William Franklin of their commands. General Burnside then rides to Washington to confer with the president.
January 24, 1863 In an attempt to flank Vicksburg via the Yazoo River, Admiral David Porter arrives back at the mouth of the swampy Yazoo.
January 25, 1863 The 54th Massachusetts Infantry, composed entirely of African Americans led by a white officer, is authorized by Massachusetts Governor John A. Andrews.
January 25, 1863 General Ambrose Burnside is removed as commander of the Army of the Potomac. One of General Burnside’s loudest critics, General Joseph Hooker, is named to the command of this army. Generals Edwin Sumner and William Franklin must await a board of inquiry to determine their futures.
January 25, 1863 Lieutenant John S. Mosby leads the Virginia Partisan Rangers as they skirmish with Federal troops at Fairfax Court House, Virginia.
January 25, 1863 General Marmaduke completes his raid into Missouri and returns to Batesville, Arkansas.
January 26, 1863 President Lincoln announces the appointment of General Joseph “Fighting Joe” Hooker as the new commander of the Army of the Potomac. He further names the following Generals as Division Commanders: Darius Couch, Right Grand Division; George Mead, Central Grand Division; and Oliver O. Howard, Left Grand Division.
January 26, 1863 The Confederate raider “Alabama” continues her success under the leadership of Captain Raphael Semmes. The Union ship “Golden Rule” is burned near Haiti.

January 27 – February 2, 1863

January 27, 1863 An anti-Union editorial appeared in the Philadelphia Journal newspaper. Newspaperman A. D. Boileau was arrested.
January 27, 1863 Shoshone attacks on area settlers and miners in the Great Basin Region resulted in a cavalry expedition against the tribe on the Bear River, Idaho Territory. Led by Colonel Patrick E. Conner, the First California Cavalry of 300 riders carries out a two-pronged attack against Chief Bear Hunter and his 300 warriors. An extended conflict ended with 224 warriors killed and 164 women and children prisoners. Federals lost 21 dead and 46 wounded. The Shoshone forfeit all claims in the Great Basin Region and Colonel Conner is promoted to brigadier general.
January 27, 1863 The Confederate raider “Alabama” burns and sinks another Union vessel. This time it is the brig “Chastelaine” in the Caribbean.
January 28, 1863 General Theophilus Holmes, Commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department, receives a message from President Davis in Richmond saying: “The loss of either of the two positions-Vicksburg or Port Hudson-would destroy communication with the Trans-Mississippi Department and inflict upon the Confederacy an injury which I am sure you have not failed to appreciate.”
January 29, 1863 In light of Union Admiral Porter’s move toward Milliken’s Bend on the Yazoo River, President Jefferson Davis asks General Pemberton in command at Vicksburg, Mississippi: “Has anything or can anything be done to obstruct the navigation from Yazoo Pass down?”
January 29, 1863 The Confederate government authorizes a loan of $15 million from French financiers.
January 30, 1863 General Grant is officially placed in charge at Milliken’s Bend, Louisiana and begins formulation of a new strategy to capture Vicksburg.
January 30, 1863 Admiral Porter orders a sweep of the Yazoo River ports for cotton that can be confiscated to deprive the Confederacy of this asset. He also assigns the “USS Linden” to lend aid in General Grant’s plan to dig a new canal to circumvent Vicksburg.
January 31, 1863 General Braxton Bragg continues his withdrawal from Murfreesboro, Tennessee while Federal troops try to overtake his retreat. A skirmish near Dover results in 300 Southern soldiers captured and five Union casualties.
January 31, 1863 Confederate rams “CSS Palmetto State” and “Chicora” sortie against the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron off Charleston, South Carolina. Admiral Samuel Du Pont suffers damage to the “USS Keystone State” and the lose of the merchantman “Mercedes” while under a thick haze. The Union has 24 dead and 24 injured seamen but the Blockade Force remains in place.
February 1, 1863 The Confederate dollar’s value falls to purchasing power of about 20 cents.
February 1, 1863 Union forces capture Franklin, Tennessee.
February 1, 1863 The ironclad “USS Montauk” under command of Captain John L. Worden attacks Fort McCalister on the Ogeechee River, Georgia. Other Union vessels involved include the “USS Seneca,” “Wissahickon,” “Dawn,” and the mortar boat “C.P. Williams.” Inflicting heavy damage on the fort while taking 48 rounds of cannon fire with little damage to the ships, they disengage after a four-hour battle.
February 2, 1863 The new Department of Washington D.C. is organized. This unit is designated XXII Corps.
February 2, 1863 A Mississippi River levee is cut by Colonel James H. Wilson’s men, raising the water level on the Yazoo River to allow gunboats to navigate.
February 2, 1863 The Federal ram “USS Queen of the West” under Colonel Charles Ellet runs past Vicksburg’s batteries taking 12 hits with little damage. She attacks the Confederate vessel “City of Vicksburg” before moving up the Red River to destroy supply caches.

February 3–9, 1863

February 3, 1863 The French embassy sends a message to Secretary of State William H. Seward offering to mediate the war.
February 3, 1863 Captain John L. Warden is honored with a note of thanks from the U.S. Congress for his service as captain of the “USS Monitor.”
February 3, 1863 At Yazoo Pass, Mississippi, the levee to allow access to Vicksburg from behind is completed. A combined expedition commanded by General Leonard F. Ross moves down the Yazoo River escorted by the gunboats “USS Baron De Kalb” and “Chillicothe.”
February 3, 1863 Captain Raphael Semmes leads the crew of the “CSS Alabama” raider as they seize and burn the Union schooner “Palmetto” off Puerto Rico.
February 3, 1863 General Nathan B. Forrest’s Confederate cavalry fails in an attack on Fort Donelson, Tennessee. Colonel Abner C. Harding’s garrison successfully turns back the attack aided by support fire from the “USS Lexington,” “Fairplay,” “St. Clair,” “Brilliant,” “Robb,” and “Silver Lake.”
February 4, 1863 Confederate troops commanded by General John S. Marmaduke are driven from Batesville, Arkansas by pursuing Federal Troops.
February 5, 1863 Citing low expectations for successful negotiation of an end to the war between the North and South in America, Queen Victoria informs Parliament that Britain will not become involved.
February 5, 1863 General Hooker, newly named commander of the Army of the Potomac, reorganizes his command. He first drops the “Grand Division” scheme and replaces it with a nine corps structure. Corps Commanders are Generals John F Reynolds (I), Darius N. Couch (II), Daniel E. Sickles (III), George G. Meade (V), John Sedgwick (VI), William F. Smith (IX), Franz Sigel (XI), Henry W. Slocum (XII), and George Stoneman (cavalry).
February 6, 1863 Secretary of State Seward rejects the French proposal to mediate the hostilities.
February 6, 1863 General William F. Smith’s IX Corps moves to Newport News, Virginia to increase pressure on Richmond from the east.
February 7, 1863 At Selma, Alabama, two new Confederate ironclads are launched and move to Mobile to be further outfitted.
February 8, 1863 The Chicago Tribune is forced to suspend publication temporarily due to alleged “disloyal” statements.
February 9, 1863 The Confederate Army of the Southwest adds the Trans-Mississippi Department as part of their force. General Edmund Kirby-Smith commands.

February 10–16, 1863

February 10, 1863 The ram “USS Queen of the West” moves down the Red River, Louisiana while the ram “USS Dick Fulton” is damaged by Confederate forces at Cyrus Bend, Arkansas.
February 11, 1863 Confederate agent James M. Mason continues to ask Britain to recognize the Confederacy, this time at the Lord Mayor’s banquet in London.
February 13, 1863 Lieutenant John N. Maffitt commanding the Confederate raider “CSS Florida” orders an attack on the Union clipper ship “Jacob Bell.” The clipper is damaged and an estimated $2 million in cargo is seized.
February 13, 1863 The “USS Queen of the West,” now on the Atchafalaya River, Louisiana, destroys a Confederate wagon train. The “USS Conestoga” captures the Confederate steamers “Rose Hambleton” and the “Evansville” on White River, Arkansas.
February 14, 1863 In more Navy news, Colonel Charles R. Ellet sails the U.S. ram “Queen of the West” up the Black River where she overtakes the “CSS New Era No.5.” Moving back downstream, the “Queen of the West” is fired on from Confederate shore batteries, run aground and captured. The Union crew transfers to the “New Era No. 5” prize they control and everyone escapes.
February 14, 1863 The “USS Tioga” captures the British blockade runner “Avon” near the Bahamas and the “USS Forest Rose” takes the Confederate steamer “Chippewa Valley” near Island No. 63 on the Mississippi River.
February 15, 1863 General John Morgan and his Confederate raiders are turned back by Union troops near Cainsville, Tennessee.
February 15, 1863 The “USS Sonoma” captures the “Atlantic,” a Confederate brig.
February 16, 1863 The U.S. Congress authorizes a new Conscription Act as the session continues. Volunteer soldiers are not enough to fill the quota so all men between age 20 and 45 are now eligible for military service. Substitutes can still be hired for $300.00, however.

February 24 – March 2, 1863

February 24, 1863 The Yazoo Pass is finally clear of overhanging vegetation that took three weeks for Union Troops to clear. General Leonard F. Ross plans to move his armada of transports and ironclads downstream.
February 24, 1863 The New Mexico Territory is divided to yield the new Arizona Territory, by act of Congress.
February 24, 1863 The U.S. fleet continues to capture and in some cases destroy Confederate vessels and blockade runners. The USS “Mahaska” sinks the Confederate sloop “Mary Jane” and the barge “Ben Bolt” on the York River, Virginia. The USS “State of Georgia” captures the blockade runner “Annie” near Cape Romain, South Carolina, and the USS “Tahoma” captures the schooner “Stonewall” off Key West, Florida.
February 24, 1863 Admiral David D. Porter abandons efforts to blockade the Red River with a single ship detached from his fleet after the CSS “Warren H. Webb,” “Beatty,” and “Queen of the West” ram the ironclad “USS Indianola” repeatedly and partially sink her.
February 25, 1863 Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase completes a new banking system and congress adopts his proposal. Participating institutions reserve up to one-third of their capital in U.S. Securities and these serve to back national bank notes issued to the public. This was designed to help finance the war effort but remained in effect until the Federal Reserve was established in 1913.
February 25, 1863 A large flotilla of light draft Union gunboats enter the Yazoo Pass.
February 25, 1863 A British diplomatic protest follows the capture of the British merchant vessel by the crew of the USS “Vanderbilt.” The protest involved the disposition of mail and President Lincoln orders the craft and all mail to be returned to their owners.
February 25, 1863 The USS “Indianola,” captured one day earlier by the Confederates, is scuttled as they attempt to refloat the vessel and “a formidable Union warship” approaches. The Union “ship” is actually an old coal barge disguised as an ironclad with dummy stacks, guns, and superstructure floated downriver by Admiral Porter.
February 26, 1863 Confederate Army leadership moves include General Longstreet gaining command of the Department of Virginia and North Carolina while General Sterling Price is transferred back to the Trans-Mississippi Department.
February 26, 1863 The National Council of Cherokee Indians renounces their alliance with the Confederacy and rejoins the Union. They agree to abolish slavery.
February 27, 1863 Captain Raphael Semmes, in command of the CSS “Alabama” raider, takes another prize; this time the Union ship “Washington” which is released on bond.
February 28, 1863 On the Yazoo River, the expedition made possible by clearing overgrowth moves into the Coldwater River ahead of army transports.
February 28, 1863 The USS “Wynandank” captures the schooners “Vista” and “Thompson” off Piney Point, Virginia. The ironclad USS “Montauk” with Captain John Worden commanding, sinks the blockade runner CSS “Rattlesnake” (formerly Nashville) near Fort McAllister, Georgia. They are aided by the USS “Seneca,” “Wisshocken,” and “Dawn.” The “Montauk” strikes a torpedo and is intentionally run aground on a mud bank for crew repair.
March 1, 1863 General Nathan B. Forrest’s Confederate raiders skirmish with Union force at Bradyville, Tennessee.
March 2, 1863 The U.S. Congress dismisses 33 ranking officers on a variety of charges. They authorize four major generals and nine brigadier generals for Army service and an additional forty major generals and 200 brigadier generals for volunteer service.
March 2, 1863 The CSS “Alabama” crew captures and burns the Federal ship “John A. Parks.”

March 3–9, 1863

March 3, 1863 The U.S. Congress resolves to condemn all offers to mediate the war as “foreign intervention.”
March 3, 1863 The Idaho Territory is formed by an act of Congress. This land is taken from the Washington and Dakota Territories.
March 3, 1863 President Lincoln signs the Federal Draft Act. All able-bodied men between 20 and 46 years of age are eligible for military service.
March 3, 1863 Prior to adjourning, the 37th U.S. Congress approves a $300 million loan to fund the war effort for the year, officially suspends writs of habeas corpus, establishes the National Academy of Sciences, and names financier Jay Cook as a Federal agent to promote the sale of war bonds.
March 3, 1863 Ironclads USS Passaic, Nahant, and Patapsco; gunboats from USS Seneca, Dawn, and Wisssahicken plus three mortar barges engage batteries at Fort McAllister, Georgia with firing lasting more than six hours. Little damage is inflicted by either side but Union crews gained needed training that later proved beneficial at Charleston, South Carolina.
March 4, 1863 At Franklin, Tennessee, General Earl Van Dorn leads Confederate forces in a skirmish. The Union cavalry is able to escape but the Union infantry units surrender.
March 5, 1863 In Columbus, Ohio, Union troops damage the office of the newspaper “Crisis” for allegedly printing pro-southern editorials.
March 5, 1863 Union Colonel John Coburn, with 2,857 soldiers, cavalry, and a six cannon battery is attacked by General Van Dorn’s Confederate force at Thompson’s Station, Tennessee. Rather than retreat, Coburn decides to attack the enemy camp. General Nathan Forrest’s cavalry attacks Coburn’s position and is held off several times. Ultimately, Coburn is forced to surrender. While the Union loss includes 1,221 soldiers captured, the long lasting story is that bad blood between Van Dorn and Forrest over the unequal sharing of captured Federal stores nearly results in a duel.
March 6, 1863 Confederate raider CSS Florida captures and burns the USS Star of Peace at sea. The Florida is under command of Lieutenant John N. Maffitt.
March 7, 1863 Song sheets, called “secession music,” are confiscated in Baltimore, Maryland.
March 7, 1863 Colonel Charles C. Dodge accuses the 103rd Pennsylvania Volunteers of plundering, unauthorized burning, and disrespectful conduct toward local women as his command moves from New Bern, North Carolina to Mattamuskeet.
March 7, 1863 General Nathan P. Banks begins to move from New Orleans to Port Hudson, Louisiana on his way to join General Ulysses S. Grant at Vicksburg, Mississippi.
March 8, 1863 At Fairfax County Courthouse, Virginia, Captain John Mosby’s Rangers capture General Edwin H. Stoughton, 38 prisoners, and 58 horses. Labeled one of the most daring and embarrassing acts of the war, Mosby awakens General Stoughton by slapping him on his backside in his bed.
March 8, 1863 Confederates fell trees across the Yazoo River and further slow the Union advance on that waterway as they attempt to approach Vicksburg by the “backdoor.” Two added days are used to clear the trees and overhanging brush left by the retreating southern soldiers.
March 9, 1863 The 22 boat expedition under the command of General Leonard F. Ross clears the Tallahatchie River at the confluence of the Yazoo and Yalobusha Rivers. They are moving to assist at Vicksburg. They encounter a small Confederate fortification named Fort Pemberton at Greenwood, Mississippi and stop to bombard it. Over the next week, their continuous contact with Fort Pemberton further delays the Yazoo River approach to Vicksburg and ultimately will cause the termination of this attempt on the Yazoo.

March 10–16, 1863

March 10, 1863 In two political opinions, the Supreme Court upheld President Lincoln’s claims. The Court agreed that only Congress has the power to declare war but the President, as commander-in-chief, has the authority to suppress rebellion. In the second case (called the Prize Case) the naval blockade is approved by a 5-4 vote with the Court declaring the right of a sovereign nation to conduct a blockade while denying that the Confederate States of America actually exists.
March 10, 1863 President Lincoln signs a general amnesty for all soldiers presently absent without leave. They must rejoin their units by April 1,1863.
March 10, 1863 President Jefferson Davis travels to Vicksburg to confer with General John C. Pemberton.
March 11, 1863 The gunboat USS Chillicothe engages the batteries at Fort Pemberton and is forced to withdraw in damaged condition, the result of countless hits. (See March 9th entry.)
March 12, 1863 The USS Hartford, Admiral David Farragut’s flagship, arrives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana as she moves up the Mississippi toward Vicksburg.
March 13, 1863 In Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate Ordnance Laboratory on Brown’s Island explodes with 70 causalities, mainly women workers.
March 13, 1863 The USS Huntsville and USS Octorara capture British blockade runners Surprise near Charlottes Island, Florida and Florence Nightingale in the Bahamas.
March 13, 1863 The ironclad USS Chillicothe, partially repaired from the March 11 encounter, rejoins the gunboats Baron de Kalb and Matamora in an exchange of cannon fire at Fort Pemberton, Mississippi. The Chillicothe receives an additional 38 hits and the flotilla withdraws up the Tallahatchie River.
March 14, 1863 The Army of the Gulf, 30,000 men commanded by General Nathaniel P. Banks, advances on Port Hudson, Louisiana. They establish a series of artillery batteries to assist Admiral Farragut’s fleet in passing Port Hudson.
March 14, 1863 Admiral Farragut’s squadron of seven ships attempts a run past Port Hudson at 11:00 P.M. and only two ships, the flagship USS Hartford and the Albatross, which is lashed to the Hartford, are able to pass successfully. The remaining ships are driven back downriver. Farragut is cut off from the rest of his fleet for several weeks. The attempt fails and the Federal authorities decide that Port Hudson is too strong to be bypassed by gunboats and therefore Port Hudson must be reduced prior to another attempt.
March 15, 1863 Confederate raider CSS Alabama, commanded by Captain Raphael Semmes, captures the Union ship Punjab off Brazil and releases her under bond.
March 16, 1863 Federal gunboats of the Yazoo River expedition again engage Fort Pemberton, Greenwood, Mississippi. The USS Chillicothe takes eight more hits and drifts helplessly. General Ross prepares to withdraw downstream and General Ulysses S. Grant terminates his attempts to attack Vicksburg by the backdoor.
March 16, 1863 After a meeting with General Grant at Hill’s Plantation, Mississippi, Admiral David D. Porter leads his five ironclads up Deer Creek in an attempt to reach Steele’s Bayou from the northeast. General William Tecumseh Sherman’s 2nd Division, XV Corps, arrives at Hill’s Plantation to aid in Admiral Porter’s advance on the Mississippi.
March 16, 1863 Philip H. Sheridan is promoted to major general, U.S. Army.

March 17–23, 1863

March 17, 1863 The Yazoo River expedition steams down the Tallahatchie River after being stymied at Fort Pemberton.
March 17, 1863 Confederate forces at Culpeper Station, Virginia become aware of General William W. Averell’s Union cavalry approaching from Morrisville, Virginia. General Fitzhugh Lee orders his 800 men into the saddle and advances to meet the threat. General Averell places his 2,100 men behind a stone wall and deploys his six cannons. In a daylong encounter, the opponents advance and retreat several times, finally calling off the fight at 5:00 P. M. with 58 Union and 133 Confederate dead. The most notable loss was Major John Pelham, Confederate artillerist. Generals Averell and Fitzhugh Lee were roommates at West Point and Averell left a bag of coffee and a note inquiring if General Lee enjoyed his visit.
March 18, 1863 The New Jersey state legislature passes a resolution condemning the war and calling for a negotiated end. New Jersey state regiments in the field pass a resolution condemning the legislature’s act as “wicked” and “cowardly.”
March 18, 1863 The Confederate steamer ’Georgiana’ is destroyed by the crew of the USS Wissahickon when the steamer attempts to run the blockade at Charleston, South Carolina.
March 19, 1863 Admiral Farragut steams north on the Mississippi River with the USS Hartford and the Albatross, the only two ships he currently commands. He runs past heavy fire from Confederate guns at Grand Gulf, south of Vicksburg and anchors off Warrenton the next day.
March 19, 1863 Admiral David D. Porter continues up Deer Creek, Mississippi toward Steele’s Bayou, clearing Southern snipers and removing trees and other obstacles from the river.
March 20, 1863 Admiral Porter’s expedition passes Rolling Fork on Deer Creek but becomes trapped when Confederates fell trees and further obstruct the river.
March 20, 1863 The Union garrison at Washington, North Carolina is ringed by several brigades of soldiers and artillery batteries. Garrison commander, General John G. Foster calls for Federal gunboats from the nearby Pamlico River to assist.
March 21, 1863 Union General Edwin Vose Sumner, at 66 years, the oldest officer involved in the Civil War on either side, dies of natural causes at Syracuse, New York. General Sumner fought in both the Black Hawk and Mexican Wars.
March 21, 1863 General Sherman’s expedition encounters low hanging branches, tree-choked river banks, snipers, and man-made barriers as they move to rescue Admiral Porter’s squadron on Deer Creek.
March 21, 1863 General Leonard F. Ross turns around on the Yazoo River and streams back toward Fort Greenwood, Mississippi.
March 22, 1863 In Kentucky, two separate raids begin. One results in the capture of Mount Sterling by elements of General Morgan’s Raiders while the other is the launch of an extended raid throughout the state lead by General John Pegram.
March 22, 1863 Admiral Porter concedes that the effort to reach Steele’s Bayou from the Yazoo River has failed. Loading Sherman’s infantry on his vessels, Admiral Porter sails back to Hill’s Plantation and another attempt to reach Vicksburg via inland waterways is thwarted.
March 23, 1863 The Confederate raider CSS Alabama captures and burns the Union ship ’Morningstar’ and the whaler ’Kingfisher’ off the Brazilian coast.
March 23, 1863 Admiral Farragut orders the bombardment of Confederate works near Warrenton, Mississippi from his two ships, ’Hartford’ and ’Albatross,’ still separated from his fleet.
March 23, 1863 Captain John Mosby leads Virginia Partisan Rangers in the defeat of a Federal force at Little River Turnpike, Virginia, then narrowly escapes capture by Union cavalry troops.

March 24–30, 1863

March 24, 1863 General John Pegram’s Confederate Cavalry reaches Danville, Kentucky and skirmish against Union soldiers in a minor event.
March 24, 1863 Admiral Porter successfully returns to Black Bayou, Mississippi after being trapped on Deer Creek by Confederate Infantry soldiers since March 20th.
March 25, 1863 General Horatio Wright is moved from the Department of the Ohio back to the Army of the Potomac as a division commander. General Ambrose E. Burnsides becomes commander of the Department of the Ohio.
March 25, 1863 At Brentwood, Tennessee, General Nathan B. Forrest leads his cavalry troops against the 22nd Wisconsin and a small detachment from the 19th Michigan. General Forrest had cut Union telegraph lines prior to the raid and successfully surrounds and captures both Union detachments. Union General Green C. Smith, leading a cavalry troop nearby, recaptures some Union wagons and supplies but General Forrest escapes with 700 captives.
March 25, 1863 Unusually brisk Union naval activity records these successes: The USS ’State of Georgia’ and ’Mount Vernon’ capture the Confederate ’Rising Dawn’ schooner off New Inlet, North Carolina. The USS Fort Henry captures the schooner ’Ranger’ at Cedar Keys, Florida. The USS Kanawha captures the schooner Clara, off Mobile, Alabama, and the USS Wachusett captures the British blockade runner ’Dolphin’ off St. Thomas in the Caribbean.
March 25, 1863 Confederate successes include the CSS Alabama burning of the Union ships ’Charles Hill’ and ’Nora’, off the Brazilian coast and, at Vicksburg, shore batteries engage and sink the USS Lancaster with 30 hits and damage the USS Switzerland as they attempt to run past the shore defenses. The planned assault against Warrenton is postponed.
March 26, 1863 Voters in the new state of West Virginia approve gradual emancipation of all slaves.
March 26, 1863 The Confederate Congress authorizes government agents to seize slaves and supplies to support the Confederate Military. Many government officials and private citizens condemn the practice due to waste and abuse and call for the repeal of this legislation, which was called the “Impressment Act.”
March 27, 1863 American Indian leaders meet with President Lincoln at the White House. The president implores them to engage in agriculture saying “I can see no way in which your race is to become as numerous and prosperous as the white race except by living as they do, by the cultivation of the earth.”
March 27, 1863 Admiral Farragut, on board his flagship USS Hartford, orders the bombardment of Confederate defenses at Warrenton, Mississippi, below Vicksburg.
March 28, 1863 The gunboat USS Diana, a former Confederate ship seized in April 1862 and re-fitted by the Union, is attack from the riverbank near Pattersonville, Louisiana on the Atchafalaya River. Union troops from the 160th New York and the 12th Connecticut are onboard and are driven from the deck. Ship Captain Thomas Peterson is killed and the Diana loses steering after a three-hour battle. Run aground and stuck, 120 Union soldiers are captured. The ship eventually re-enters Confederate service commanded by General Richard Taylor.
March 29, 1863 General Grant begins to break from his supply base at Memphis by dispatching General John McClernand, with troops, to Milliken’s Bend, Louisiana. These troops are to march south to New Carthage on the west bank of the Mississippi River. All attempts to take Vicksburg from a northern or westerly approach are abandoned.
March 29, 1863 The USS Albatross joins the Hartford in bombarding Confederate batteries at Warrenton, Mississippi.
March 29, 1863 Confederate troops, in a surprise attack on Fort Magruder at Williamsburg, Virginia, fail to displace the Union force occupying the site.
March 30, 1863 The USS Monticello captures the British blockade runner ’Sue’ near Little River, North Carolina. President Lincoln announces a national day of fasting and prayer to take place April 30,1863.

March 31 – April 6, 1863

March 31, 1863 Oliver O. Howard is promoted to major general, U.S. Army.
March 31, 1863 At Gulf Port, Mississippi, Admiral David G. Farragut sails past the Confederate batteries aboard his flagship USS Hartford, accompanied by the USS Albatross and the recently repaired ram “Switzerland.” They continue to the Red River and establish a blockade.
March 31, 1863 The crews of USS Two Sisters and the USS Memphis capture the Confederate schooner “Agnus” of Tortuga, Florida and the British schooner “Antelope” off Charleston, South Carolina, respectively.
April 1, 1863 General Grant officially abandons any advance on Vicksburg, Mississippi from the north after Grant, General W.T. Sherman, Admiral David D. Porter, and the crew of the USS Tuscumbia complete a reconnaissance of the Yazoo River as far as Haynes Bluff. General Grant now concentrates his attention on operations below the city.
April 1, 1863 Confederate Cavalry General John Mosby’s 65 men are surprised in camp at Broad Run, Virginia by 200 Union Cavalry. More than 100 casualties result and Mosby prevails.
April 2, 1863 The “Bread Riot” at Richmond takes place on this date. A small group of women and boys march from Capital Square in search of bread and draw a crowd of 1,000 or more unruly sympathizers. Full scale rioting and looting results and many businesses are ransacked. President Jefferson Davis leaves the Confederate “White House” and demands that they disperse or be fired on. The riot slowly falls apart.
April 2, 1863 In a planning session concerning an attack on Vicksburg, General Sherman is assigned to create a diversion along Haynes Bluff north of Vicksburg while General Grant marches the main force south along the west bank of the Mississippi River. Admiral Porter will attempt to sail south past the city and reunite at Hard Times, Mississippi, 30 miles south. There the entire army will be moved to the Confederate shore by Porter’s vessels. No date is set.
April 2, 1863 Union forces under General John G. Foster are under siege at Washington, D.C. Naval gunboats move up the Pamlico River and silences the shore batteries of the Confederates, breaking the siege.
April 3, 1863 In retaliation for recent Confederate attacks on Union shipping, the USS Lexington, Brilliant, Robb, Silver Lake, and Springfield bombard and destroy the town of Palmyra, Tennessee.
April 4, 1863 The British built “Alexandra,” destined for service in the Confederate navy, is set to depart the shipyard. American minister Charles F. Adams lodges a formal protest.
April 4, 1863 The final Union activity on the Yazoo River is the expedition of Generals Leonard F. Ross and Isaac F. Quinby to bombard Fort Pemberton at Greenwood, Mississippi. The expedition fails and the flotilla vessels steam back to the Mississippi River.
April 4, 1863 The CSS Alabama raider records another success by capturing and burning the Union ship “Louisa Hatch” off Brazil.
April 5, 1863 General Joseph Hooker meets with President Lincoln at Fredericksburg, Virginia. They concur that the object of future military action should be directed at General Robert E. Lee’s army and not at the city of Richmond.
April 5, 1863 Admiral Samuel DuPont cautiously approaches Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, intending to attack. He decides to anchor his ironclads and steamers off shore until a sand bar can be marked with buoys.
April 6, 1863 The newly completed warship “Alexandra” is seized by the British government to placate the U.S. (see the protest of April 2). The ship is eventually released to the Confederacy by the courts.
April 6, 1863 With buoys installed on the Stono sand bar, Admiral DuPont leads his squadron of nine heavy ironclads inside Charleston Harbor.

April 7–13, 1863

April 7, 1863 General Joseph Wheeler, Confederate Cavalry Commander, leads an attack on railroads of the Louisville and Nashville and the Nashville and Chattanooga lines at Antioch Station, Tennessee.
April 7, 1863 Admiral Dupont, thankful for a “failure, not a disaster” in Charleston Harbor, withdraws and suspends action. Unfavorable tides kept his squadron from deploying within range of Ft. Moultrie and Sumter until late afternoon. DuPont then finds that the harbor is filled with submerged obstacles as well as floating range markers. His slow-firing monitors can only fire 139 rounds while the 77 mounted cannons on shore fire 2,200 shells, most with great accuracy due to the pre-tested and marked range. The USS Weehawken strikes a mine and takes 55 hits in only 40 minutes. The other eight ironclads are also battered with only the “Keokuk,” hit several times near the water line, no longer controllable. Admiral DuPont plans to attack again tomorrow but yields to his captains and admits the city is too strong to be taken by sea power alone. This is the biggest defeat of the U.S. Navy during the Civil War.
April 8, 1863 President Lincoln and General Hooker review the Army of the Potomac at Falmouth, Virginia, across the river from Fredericksburg.
April 8, 1863 The USS Keokuk sinks outside of Charleston Harbor. The Confederates recover the Keokuk’s signal books and can now read squadron communication.
April 8, 1863 Edward C. Gabaudan, Admiral Farragut’s secretary, floats past Vicksburg to join the fleet below the city. He uses a small boat covered with branches and reported that Confederate sentinels rowed close to him but decided his vessel was a log and returned to shore.
April 9, 1863 The former merchant ship “Japan” is commissioned into the Confederate Navy as the raider CSS Georgia, off the French coast. Operating near the Cape of Good Hope, she eventually captures nine Union vessels but is decommissioned early due to poor sailing abilities.
April 10, 1863 To produce needed food for the army, President Jefferson Davis lectures “Let fields be devoted exclusively to the production of corn, oats, beans, peas, potatoes, and other food for man and beast.” Of course, more natural crops for these farmers would have been tobacco and cotton.
April 10, 1863 General Earl Van Dorn orders an attack on Union positions at Franklin, Tennessee but loses 300 men when General Gordon Granger’s cavalry troop responds.
April 11, 1863 Admiral Samuel P. Lee of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron sends several vessels to aid in the defense of Suffolk, Virginia, south of the James River. General James Longstreet, with 20,000 veteran soldiers, holds a “loose siege” of Suffolk while General John J. Peck occupies the town and mans fortifications with 25,000 Federals.
April 11, 1863 Over 1,700 Union Cavalry under Colonel Able D. Streight begin a raid into Georgia from Nashville. They are all infantrymen and are mounted on mules, anticipating rough terrain in northern Alabama.
April 12, 1863 General Hooker explains to President Lincoln that he wishes to swing around General Robert E. Lee’s left and threaten Richmond. The president reminds him that the complete destruction of Lee’s army is paramount.
April 12, 1863 General Nathaniel Banks’ XIX Corps of 16,000 men move in three divisions up the Teche River to Irish Bend on Bayou Teche, Louisiana. Landing one division of 4,500 men north of the fort, the other two divisions open a three-hour artillery dual on Fort Bisland. Confederate General Richard Taylor commands about 4,000 men and plans to have General Henry Silby’s Texas Brigade attack Bank’s left flank the next day.
April 13, 1863 General Silby fails to arrive at Irish Bend, Louisiana, either too sick or too drunk to comply with General Taylor’s plan. The Union, far out-numbering the garrison in Fort Bisland, pushes their earthworks to within 400 yards of the fort. General Taylor decides to abandon the fort knowing that he will be crushed between Banks and the supporting division. General Taylor’s men skirt the Union forces along the river and escape.
April 13, 1863 President Lincoln instructs Admiral DuPont to maintain his position at Charleston Harbor, causing the Confederates to anticipate another attack.
April 13, 1863 Commander of the Department of the Ohio, General Ambrose Burnside, suppresses the activities of Peace Democrats (Copperheads) by instituting military tribunal-and firing squads-for treasonable activities. Anyone displaying sympathy for the south could expect prompt removal across Confederate lines.

April 14–20, 1863

April 14, 1863 Fort Bisland, Louisiana is abandoned by General Richard Taylor’s Confederate force. Union troops under General Cuvier Grover are surprised by Taylor’s evacuating force and suffer about 600 causalities while Confederate losses are unknown. Union General Nathaniel Banks moves his larger force into the fort while Taylor’s small force escapes without any pursuit by Grover or Banks.
April 14, 1863 General Richard Taylor’s retreating troops are forced to scuttle the recently re-captured CSS Diana. (See March 28,1863 entry.)
April 14, 1863 At Suffolk, Virginia, the Federal gunboats USS Mount Washington, Stepping Stones, and Commodore Barney accurately target the advancing Confederates as they attempt to surround the Union garrison.
April 14, 1863 The CSS Queen of the West ram is sunk in Grand Lake, Louisiana by the USS Estrella, Arizona, and Calhoun. The USS Huntsman seizes the British blockade runner ’Ascension’ off the Florida Gulf Coast and the USS Sonoma captures the Confederate schooner ’Clyde’ in the Gulf of Mexico.
April 15, 1863 General Daniel H. Hill is forced to abandon his siege at New Bern, North Carolina with the arrival of Union General John G. Foster, who sails from Washington, North Carolina on the Pamlico River.
April 15, 1863 The plan to bypass Vicksburg, Mississippi by marching troops down the left bank of the river, sailing part of the fleet past the fort under cover of darkness, and creating a diversion north of the city using General Sherman’s troops begins. This plan was put together on April 2, 1863 (see entry) and was mostly completed by April 30. The advance on Vicksburg from the south then follows starting May 1, 1863.
April 15, 1863 The portion of General Grant’s plan carried out on this date includes assembly of 45,000 troops at Milliken’s Bend, 10 miles north of Vicksburg and the march of General James McPherson’s corps down the left side of the Mississippi River to New Carthage to join General McClernand already there. General Sherman begins to demonstrate at Chickasaw Bluffs as a feint.
April 15, 1863 The CSS Alabama continues to have success as a raider, this time capturing and burning the whalers ’Kate Cory’ and ’Lafayette’ off Brazil.
April 16, 1863 Legislation permitting minors under 18 years of age to become commissioned officers is signed by President Jefferson Davis.
April 16, 1863 At Vicksburg, a gala ball underway to celebrate the “impregnability” of the city is interrupted by heavy gunfire on the Mississippi River. Admiral David Porter sails 12 vessels past the Confederate batteries. Action lasted over two hours with most vessels taking hits. The transport ’Henry Clay’ sinks and the gunboat ’Forest Queen’ is disabled.
April 17, 1863 To draw attention away from Vicksburg, Colonel Benjamin H. Grierson begins a planned 16-day cavalry raid from La Grange, Tennessee, down through Mississippi to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He has 1,700 troopers from the 6th and 7th Illinois Cavalry, the 2nd Iowa, and a battery of horse artillery. The mission is to tear up track and telegraph while taking prisoners.
April 18, 1863 To encourage outfitting of warships at private expense, the Confederate Congress authorizes a volunteer navy.
April 18, 1863 Confederate held Fort Huger on the Nansemond River, Virginia is attacked by the crew from the USS Stepping Stones and 270 soldiers. The soldiers push into the fort before the garrison can react and seize 137 prisoners and five cannons. The 55th North Carolina, the guard unit in the fort, is blamed for the defeat and duals of honor are waged between several officers of commanding General Evander M. Law’s staff.
April 18, 1863 A force of 3,000 Confederates under General John S. Marmaduke is repulsed at Fayetteville, Arkansas, by a 2,000 man Union garrison.
April 18, 1863 The USS Gem of the Sea sinks the British blockade runner ’Inez’ off Cape Romain, South Carolina. The USS Stettin captures the Confederate steamer ’St. John’ off Indian River Inlet, Florida, and the USS Susquehanna captures the Confederate schooner ’Alabama’ off the Florida Gulf Coast.
April 19, 1863 President Lincoln, General in Chief Henry Halleck, and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton meet at Aquia Creek, Virginia to discuss military matters.
April 20, 1863 The USS Sterling Price and USS Tuscumba jointly reconnoiter the Mississippi River to Grand Gulf, the object of a planned Union assault.
April 20, 1863 General Banks moves a portion of his command to Washington and Opelousas, Louisiana. The rest of Bank’s command is inside Fort Bisland, Louisiana.
April 20, 1863 President Lincoln announces that the new state of West Virginia will be established on June 20,1863. Land will come from the western most counties of Virginia.

April 21–27, 1863

April 21, 1863 A Confederate foray led by General William E. Jones plans to attack the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in the portion of Virginia that will become the new state of West Virginia in June. General Jones is to meet up with General John Imboden near Oakton and Grafton.
April 21, 1863 In Mississippi, Union Cavalry under Colonel Benjamin Grierson skirmish with Confederates near Palo Alto with additional Southern cavalry units closing on the position. Grierson splits his command and sends Colonel Edward Hatch of the 2nd Iowa Cavalry to threaten the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, and then retreat back to La Grange, Tennessee. The Confederates mistakenly follow the Iowa Cavalry troop and Grierson is free to gallop through the heart of Mississippi virtually unopposed.
April 21, 1863 A second convoy of army transports pass the batteries at Vicksburg at night under heavy fire. Of the six vessels, the steamer ’Tigress’ is sunk while the ’Empire City’ and the ’Moderator’ are damaged. The rest of the vessels reach New Carthage where U.S. Grant now can move his Army across the river en masse.
April 22, 1863 General John Pemberton at Vicksburg is urged by President Jefferson Davis to launch “fire rafts” to float downriver to disrupt Federal activity.
April 23, 1863 The northern blockade of Wilmington, North Carolina harbor is broken when the Confederate steamers Merrimac, Charleston, Margaret and Jesse enter the harbor.
April 24, 1863 President Lincoln authorizes General Order #100, also known as the Lieber Code. This code standardizes law pertaining to war. Written by Frances Lieber, it has 10 sections from Court Martial to Rebellion and has 157 Articles. (It is available online.)
April 24, 1863 The Confederate Congress imposes a 10 percent tax on all produce harvested. Resentment grows in the farm-producing segment as they already are subject to direct requisition of the crops for war use.
April 24, 1863 General Grant begins to transport the Army of the Potomac from Hard Times Plantation, Louisiana to the Mississippi side of the river, near Bruinsville.
April 24, 1863 General Grierson’s Union Cavalry seizes an arriving ammunition train at Newton Station, Mississippi and tears up miles of track belonging to the Southern Mississippi Railroad. They are less that 100 miles from Vicksburg and General Pemberton orders infantry and artillery Regiments at Jackson, Mississippi to intercept them.
April 24, 1863 The Confederate Raiders CSS Alabama under command of Captain Raphael Semmes captures the Union whaler “Nye” off Brazil, and the CSS Florida, under Lieutenant John Maffitt sinks the Union ship “Oneida” at sea. Union success on this date includes the capture of the Confederate schooners ’Martha Ann’ and ’A. Carson’ off Horn Harbor, Virginia; the sloops ’Jane Adelie’ and ’Bright’ plus the schooners ’General Prim’ and ’Rapid’ in the Gulf of Mexico; and the schooner ’Joe Flanner’ at sea.
April 24, 1863 Admiral David Porter stations gunboats in the Mississippi River at the mouth of the Big Black River. This isolates the Confederate batteries at Grand Gulf, Mississippi.
April 25, 1863 Cherokee Indians, followers of Colonel Stand Watie, and Confederate sympathizers skirmish with Union troops at Webber’s Fall, Indian Territory. Apache Indians attack Federal troops near Fort Bowie, Arizona Territory.
April 26, 1863 The mule riding infantry led by Colonel Abel Streight moves from Tuscumbia, Alabama, to Rome, Georgia to destroy the Western and Atlantic Railroad.
April 26, 1863 Confederate Cavalry commanded by General John Imboden rides from Beverly, West Virginia toward Buchannon but are forced back by Union reinforcements.
April 26, 1863 The CSS Alabama burns the Union ship ’Dorcus Prince’ near Natal, Brazil.
April 27, 1863 About 75,000 men from the Army of the Potomac under General Joseph Hooker leave Falmouth, Virginia. They deploy south of the Rappahannock River near the area known as the Wilderness, 10 miles behind Confederate line. General John Sedgwick remains at Fredericksburg with 40,000 troops and threatens General Lee’s Army, holding Lee in place. Hooker enjoys the largest numerical superiority over Southern forces so far in the war.

April 28 – May 4, 1863

April 28, 1863 The U.S. Army establishes the Invalid Corps, providing meaningful light duty for soldiers unfit for active duty.
April 28, 1863 General Hooker’s Army of the Potomac moves into position around Chancellorsville, Virginia. General John Sedgwick holds his portion of the Army at Fredericksburg in an attempt to distract and contain General Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia.
April 29, 1863 Confederate General William E. Jones leads his cavalry through Buchanan, Virginia and captures the Union Depot there as well as 500 prisoners and 1500 horses.
April 29, 1863 General Stoneman’s Union Cavalry crosses the Rappahannock River into Virginia on a major raid. One brigade moves to destroy the Orange and Alexandria Railroad near Gordonsville, while the main body moves to destroy the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad. With only limited success, the move proved to be a poor use of cavalry when they could have been scouting the dense terrain north and northwest of Richmond.
April 29, 1863 An elaborate feint to prevent Confederate reinforcements from shifting south toward Grand Gulf is carried out north of Vicksburg on the Yazoo River. At Haynes Bluff, a joint expedition of 22 gunboats, transports and mortar boats move up river.
April 29, 1863 At Grand Gulf, Mississippi, Admiral David Porter’s gunboat squadron bombards Confederate batteries for five hour, silencing them. Three vessels are damaged but all by-pass Grand Gulf and are now in position below Vicksburg.
April 30, 1863 General Lee is surprised by General Hooker’s rapid 30 mile march along the bank of the Rappahannock River, ending up behind Lee’s position. Typically, Lee reacts boldly, dividing his force, leaving 10,000 men with General Jubal Early to guard Fredericksburg and marching 50,000 men to Chancellorsville Crossroad.
April 30, 1863 General Grant continues to ferry the XIII Corps (McClernand) and XVII Corps (McPherson), a total of 23,000 men, to the Mississippi side of the river at Bruinsburg. These troops push several miles inland unopposed with Confederate attention on General Sherman’s distractions at Haynes’s Bluff. Grant later writes: “All the campaigns, labors, hardships, and exposures, from the month of December previous to this time, that had been made and endured, were for the accomplishment of this one object.”
April 30, 1863 The Great Seal of the Confederacy is approved. It shows George Washington and the motto “Deo Vindice” (God as our Defender).
May 1, 1863 The first Confederate Congress, third session, adjourns. Major legislation included authorization for military tribunals to execute white officers commanding black troops and the execution of black troops. If not killed, return them to slavery.
May 1, 1863 First contact of General Thomas J. Jackson’s Army of Northern Virginia and Union pickets occurs near Chancellorsville. General Hooker moves his force back from clear, high ground, negating his advantage and artillery superiority. When General Lee arrives, he sends General Jackson on a flanking move around Hooker’s right with 30,000 men while the 20,000 remaining men demonstrate to hold Hooker’s attention. This is the second division on the Army of Northern Virginia in two days.
May 1, 1863 General Grant moves to Port Gibson below Vicksburg, and attacks 8,000 Confederates, using General McClernand’s 23,000 men. This engagement lasted from 6:00 AM until near sunset. The Confederates, led by General John S. Bowen, retreat, burning bridges behind them. Grant cuts his supply lines and communication, now moving quickly and unconstrained.
May 2, 1863 At Chancellorsville, General Thomas J. Jackson moves his 30,000 men all night to circle the right flank of the Army of the Potomac. The right of the Union Army consists of General O. O. Howard’s mostly German speaking XI Corps. Jackson attacks just as Howard’s men are preparing dinner and Union resistance crumbles. Resistance soon stiffens and, in the confusion of darkness, men of the 18th North Carolina accidentally shoot General Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson, severely wounding him and he was removed from leadership.
May 2, 1863 Confederate General Ambrose P. Hill takes command of Jackson’s II Corps but he is subsequently wounded and command is passed to General J. E. B. Stuart.
May 2, 1863 General Grant continues his rapid movement and arrives at Edwards Station, 16 miles from Vicksburg. He cuts the Vicksburg and Jackson Railroad, isolating Vicksburg. Colonel Benjamin Grierson completes his 16 days of raids in Louisiana, all designed to cover General Grant’s movement. Grierson is promoted to brigadier general.
May 3, 1863 General Stuart mounts 50 cannons atop Hazel Grove and bombards General Hooker’s position. Fighting, often confusing and terrible in the thickly wooded Wilderness area, results in retreat of General Hooker’s Army. General Joseph Hooker was stunned by falling debris when a column on his headquarters house was struck by a cannon ball.
May 3, 1863 General Robert E. Lee arrives to take command and he becomes aware that General John Sedgwick is advancing from Fredericksburg, behind his position. Lee leaves 20,000 men to contain Hooker and sends General Richard H. Anderson’s division to meet General Sedgwick’s force. This is the third division of Lee’s Army.
May 3, 1863 General Hooker orders Sedgwick’s VI Corps to storm the heights at Fredericksburg, then attack the Army of Northern Virginia from the west. Two attempts to take Marye’s Heights fail before Sedgwick orders a bayonet attack and General Jubal Early’s forces are ejected from the position.
May 3, 1863 Known as the “mule brigade,” Colonel Abel D. Streight’s command is surrendered to General Nathan B. Forrest at Ceder Bluff, Alabama. While outnumbered, Forrest constantly parades his small unit in front of Colonel Streight’s men, convincing Streight that he is actually outnumbered.
May 3, 1863 The CSS Alabama captures and burns the Union bark ’Sea Lark’ off Brazil. She was carrying cargo estimated to value at least $500,000.
May 4, 1863 The Battle of Salem Church, Virginia ends the struggle in and around Chancellorsville. The Federals withdraw toward the Rappahannock River and entrench. After several Southern attempts to dislodge them, General Lee calls off the action. Union Generals Joseph Hooker and John Sedgwick make plans to move beyond the Rappahannock.

May 5–11, 1863

May 5, 1863 The 50th anniversary of the Battle of Fort Meigs in what is now Perrysburg, Ohio took place. This War of 1812 battle decided if the United States or the British would control Lake Erie. A British win might have caused Toledo, Vermillion, Sandusky, Cleveland, and other Ohio towns to be located in Canada. The U.S. won, 200 years ago today.
May 5, 1863 US Congressman Clement L. Vallandigham of Ohio is arrested by Union soldiers after opposing the war and urging Union soldiers to desert.
May 5, 1863 General Hooker leads his recently humbled Army of the Potomac back over the Rappahannock River, amid protests of subordinates. General Abner Doubleday questioned Hooker about his behavior in battle. General Hooker responded, “Doubleday, I was not hurt by a shell, and I was not drunk. For once I lost confidence in Joe Hooker and that is all there is to it.” General Hooker lasts less than two more months as Army of the Potomac commander.
May 5, 1863 General Sedgwick moves his Union VI Corps back over the Rappahannock River at Bank’s Ford, the last act of the Chancellorsville campaign.
May 6, 1863 General Ambrose P. Hill recovers from his injuries and formally succeeds General Thomas J. Jackson as II Corps commander, Army of Northern Virginia.
May 6, 1863 At Sherwood, Missouri, 30 Union soldiers, both black and white, are killed. The town is burned the following day.
May 7, 1863 Union Cavalry crosses Raccoon Ford, Virginia, after a less than stellar raid by General John Stoneman.
May 7, 1863 The Union XV Corps leaves Milliken’s Bend, Mississippi and marches overland under General W.T. Sherman. General Grant moves to attack the state capital at Jackson.
May 7, 1863 Confederate General Earl Van Dorn is murdered while in his tent at Spring Hill, Tennessee. The killer is the husband of an alleged suitor.
May 7, 1863 Admiral Porter steps ashore to accept the surrender of Alexandria, Louisiana, located on the Red River. Admiral Porter then moves back to the Mississippi River below Vicksburg.
May 8, 1863 All foreigners becoming citizens of the United States are eligible for the draft, per decree from President Lincoln.
May 8, 1863 General Stoneman is transferred as a corps commander of cavalry after his ill-advised raid and lack of any impact on the battle at Chancellorsville.
May 8, 1863 General Sherman’s Corp joins with General Grant’s main Army in Mississippi.
May 9, 1863 Congress appoints Hugh McCulloch as comptroller of currency as the new national bank begins operation.
May 9, 1863 General Joseph E. Johnston is ordered to Mississippi to command all defensive forces.
May 10, 1863 General Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson dies of pneumonia at Guiney’s Station, Virginia. This is about 30 miles from Chancellersville where he was accidentally shot on May 2, 1863.
May 11, 1863 President Lincoln rejects Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase’s offers to resign in a dispute over an appointment decision.
May 11, 1863 Union Cavalry commanded by Colonel Benjamin H. Grierson cuts the New Orleans and Jackson Railroad at Crystal Springs, Mississippi.
May 11, 1863 General Pemberton learns that Union forces led by General Grant are near Edwards Station, just 16 miles from Vicksburg. He instructs General John Gregg to move his 4,000 men to Raymond, slow Grant’s advance, and protect the Jackson and Vicksburg Railroad.

May 12–18, 1863

May 12, 1863 Union troops win a battle at Raymond, Mississippi, a few miles west of Jackson. General James McPherson’s XVII Union Corps of John Logan’s 3rd Division encounters resistance from General John Gregg’s Confederates moving from Vicksburg. General Grant modifies his approach plans to avoid a direct move to Jackson and the possibility of being caught between Pemberton’s force moving from the west and the arriving army of General Johnston from the east. General Grant now plans to meet portions of the Confederate Army piecemeal and defeat them before they can unite.
May 13, 1863 At Jackson, Mississippi, General Grant directs Generals Sherman and McPherson to move rapidly on the Mississippi Springs Road while General John McClernand moves north toward Clinton.
May 13, 1863 General Joseph Johnston arrives in Jackson, Mississippi, too late to ready any defense. He is forced to evacuate men and supplies while General Gregg covers Johnston’s withdrawal. Johnston directs General Pemberton to march east from Vicksburg and try to catch the Union forces between them.
May 14, 1863 In Richmond, General Robert E. Lee attends a high level strategy conference. This is the first time any plan is discussed that mentions a Confederate invasion on Northern soil. General Lee argues that such a move would discredit the Republican Party and European intervention into the American Civil War could be a result.
May 14, 1863 Port Hudson, Louisiana is the only strong point on the Mississippi River once Vicksburg is under Union control. Confederate General Franklin Gardner and 5,000 men are in place to defend Port Hudson while Union General Nathaniel P. Banks advances from Baton Rouge with 30,000 troops.
May 14, 1863 Jackson, Mississippi, a strategic rail junction east of Vicksburg falls after a daylong battle in heavy rain. General McPherson makes first contact midmorning and shells the Confederate positions during the downpour. General Sherman arrives from the south. General Gregg’s 6,000 Confederates spread their line to defend but are over run when McPherson orders a bayonet charge. Several cannons are captured and General Joseph Johnston evacuates the Confederate army trains.
May 15, 1863 The ’Jeffersonian’ newspaper office in Richmond, Indiana is ransacked by angry Federal Troops after anti-Union sentiments were printed.
May 15, 1863 Just two days after General Joseph Johnston ordered General Pemberton to march east from Edward’s Station, Mississippi, to trap General Grant between them, Pemberton disobeyed orders and marched south toward Grand Gulf to cut the Union supply line. Grant had already abandoned his supply line and is “living off the land.”
May 16, 1863 The most decisive battle of the Vicksburg Campaign takes place at Champion’s Hill, Mississippi, about midway between Jackson and Vicksburg. General Pemberton’s 22,000 men are engaged by Ulysses S. Grant’s 32,000 men from McPherson’s and McClernand’s corps. While the fighting moves at close quarters and the initiative changes sides at least three times, all falls apart when General Loring refuses to obey an order from Pemberton to move to support the center and left.
May 17, 1863 General Pemberton chooses to defend a bridge on the Big Black River, just 12 miles east of Vicksburg. He defends this spot thinking that General Loring’s division, separated from the main army since the previous day, will re-establish contact here rather than on a better defensive position further to the west. Loring is meanwhile marching east toward Jackson to unite with General Johnston’s army.
May 17, 1863 On the west bank of the Mississippi, a Confederate Cavalry raid on Union forces is successful. Cattle and a few prisoners are taken. The cattle were destined for General Nathaniel Bank’s army.
May 17, 1863 The Confederates suffer further loss of men and equipment, including 18 cannons, along the Big Black River. In the two-week campaign, General Grant has now opened the road to Vicksburg.
May 18, 1863 British House of Lord’s Foreign Secretary Lord Russell declares “no intention” of intervening in the American conflict.
May 18, 1863 General Grant moves across the Big Black River and takes a position adjacent to the Confederate works at Vicksburg. Grant’s position completely seals Vicksburg from escape or reinforcement but General Pemberton vows to fight on. General Joseph E. Johnston warns General Pemberton to be aware that he could become trapped. It is too late.
May 18, 1863 General W. T. Sherman continues to move on the Yazoo River. As a diversionary force, Sherman intends to storm Snyder’s Bluff and/or Haynes’s Bluff north of Vicksburg. Commander John Grimes leads Federal gunboats USS Baron de Kalb, Choctaw, Linden, Romeo, Petrel, and Forest Rose, up the Yazoo River in support of General Sherman. Ultimately, the diversionary tactics are not needed and the gunboats shell Vicksburg. Sherman is ordered to plan an attack on the north edge of Vicksburg.

May 19–25, 1863

May 19, 1863 Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton orders Congressman Clement L. Vallandigham (D-Ohio) released and deported to the Confederate lines. The arrest and detention of the Congressman caused some negative sentiment in the North.
May 19, 1863 General Sherman attacks the northern fringes of the Confederate defense at Vicksburg with desperate fighting and heavy losses. At a position known as Stockade Redan, the Union soldiers are flung back while similar losses were experienced by McClernand and McPherson at other positions on the city perimeter. General Grant suspends action.
May 19, 1863 Army and navy siege guns begin a continuous bombardment of Vicksburg that lasts seven weeks.
May 21, 1863 Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston directs General Franklin Gardner to abandon Port Hudson, Louisiana and come to the aid of Vicksburg. Gardner ignores the order and remains securely behind his four and one half miles of earthworks and natural defenses on a sharp bend in the Mississippi River. General Nathaniel P. Banks and his 30,000 Federal troops surround Gardner’s garrison the next day.
May 21, 1863 Yazoo City and the boat yard, machine shop, and tool storage buildings are destroyed and then abandoned by Confederate forces. Commander John Grimes leaves Haynes’s Bluff and steams to Yazoo City and shells the Navy yard, destroying three ships under construction.
May 22, 1863 President Jefferson Davis directs General Braxton Bragg to assist at Vicksburg, if possible. Bragg is in Tennessee and does not respond.
May 22, 1863 The Bureau of Colored Troops is established by the U.S. War Department. The goal is to coordinate the recruitment of African Americans from all states and regions. May 22- 1863 - General Grant launches a three-mile wide frontal assault on Vicksburg’s defensive lines. Sherman’s XV Corps and McPherson’s XVII Corps attack simultaneously, trying to overpower the defenders. Steep and narrow ravines, felled trees, and strong breastworks cause heavy Union losses, (3,199 Union casualties of 45,000 engaged) and Grant resigns himself to the siege operation he wished to avoid. The USS Benton, Carondelet, Mound City, and Tuscumbia resume their bombardment of Vicksburg.
May 23, 1863 Confederate Secretary of War John A. Seddon suggests to President Davis that an alternative operation be planned to take pressure off Vicksburg. He specifically suggests General Grant’s supply base at Helena, Arkansas be considered.
May 23, 1863 General Nathaniel Banks continues to tighten his hold on Port Hudson in preparation for a general assault. Banks has 30,000 soldiers; General Gardner has about 7,000.
May 24, 1863 Staff promotions in the Confederate Army include Ambrose P. Hill appointed lieutenant general, CSA and Henry Heth appointed major general, CSA.
May 24, 1863 Federal gunboats of the Yazoo River expedition move up the adjacent Sunflower River and destroy grain along the banks.
May 25, 1863 Peace Democrat Clement Vallandigham is released from prison and escorted to Murfreesboro, Tennessee for deportation through the lines.
May 25, 1863 An attempt to tunnel under the Vicksburg defensive lines and detonate 2,200 pounds of powder fails to penetrate the defenses as additional enemy lines are behind the point of detonation.
May 25, 1863 The CSS Alabama claims another Union ship. The Gildersleeve is captured and burned near Bahia, Brazil.

May 26 – June 1, 1863

May 26, 1863 At Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Peace Democrat Clement L. Vallandigham is banished to the Confederacy for the duration of the war.
May 26, 1863 Port Hudson, Louisiana is the target of General Nathaniel Bank’ planned attack, beginning as a heavy naval bombardment followed by a mass infantry assault. A coordinated attack is difficult due to the rough terrain and the difficulty of maintaining close coordination of several subordinates units.
May 27, 1863 General Banks launches his attack on Port Hudson at 6:00AM. Fighting continues for six hours with the Union force gaining some foothold but ultimately they are driven off. This is the first large scale use of African-American troops in battle with the 1st Regiment of the Louisiana Guards made up of Creole elites from New Orleans, with a black officer commanding and the 3rd Regiment made up of former slaves commanded by a white officer. Admiral Farragut’s squadron is actively engaged in the reduction of Port Hudson.
May 27, 1863 Near Vicksburg, General W.T. Sherman attacks Fort Hill and is repulsed. The USS Cincinnati, commanded by Lieutenant George Bache, is sunk by cannon fire at Fort Hill but goes down with colors flying, eliciting praise from General Sherman.
May 28, 1863 The 54th Massachusetts Infantry passes through Boston and ships out to Hilton Head, South Carolina for siege duty at Charleston. This is the first all black unit in the field for the North.
May 29, 1863 General Ambrose Burnside protests the release of Copperhead Vallandigham and tenders his resignation to President Lincoln in protest. It is refused by the president.
May 30, 1863 The Army of Northern Virginia is reorganized into four Corps by General Robert E. Lee. Leaders are: General James Longstreet (I Corps), General Richard Ewell (II Corps), General Ambrose P. Hill (III Corps), and General J.E.B. Stuart (Cavalry Corps).
May 31, 1863 President Jefferson Davis expresses his dissatisfaction with General Joseph E. Johnston’s failure to handle affairs at Vicksburg. This occurs in a high level strategy meeting with General R.E. Lee at Richmond.
May 31, 1863 Admiral David Porter offers two large naval guns for service ashore at Vicksburg, to be manned by naval personnel. This is an unusual display of inter service cooperation. General Sherman accepts the offer.
June 1, 1863 General Ambrose Burnside closes the Chicago Times office after disloyal articles are printed. This causes an uproar and a political headache for President Lincoln.

May 26 – June 1, 1863

June 2, 1863 Peace Democrat Clement Vallandigham is moved to Wilmington, North Carolina for detention per President Davis’ instructions. He is held as an enemy alien.
June 2, 1863 Following an eight-hour chase, the CSS Alabama captures and burns the USS Amazonian in the South Atlantic. Captain Raphael Semmes continues to have success.
June 3, 1863 The 54th Massachusetts Infantry, a newly formed African American unit, arrives in Port Royal, South Carolina. Colonel Robert G. Shaw commands them.
June 3, 1863 General Robert E. Lee moves his 75,000-men Army of Northern Virginia from Fredericksburg, Virginia toward the Shenandoah Valley. This begins the second invasion of the north by General Lee. General A.P. Hill’s Corps remains in Fredericksburg.
June 3, 1863 The USS Stars and Stripes captures the Confederate sloop ’Florida’ at St Mark’s Bay, Florida.
June 4, 1863 President Lincoln orders Secretary of War Stanton to reverse the suspension placed on the Chicago Times by General Burnside.
June 4, 1863 General William Rosecrans’ Union force faces General Braxton Bragg’s Confederates in a skirmish near Snow Hill, Tennessee.
June 5, 1863 Union leaders assume the Army of Northern Virginia is moving to invade Maryland. To test if the Confederates have moved en mass from Fredericksburg, General John Sedgwick probes across the Rappahannock River at Franklin’s Crossing. Stiff resistance is encountered and Sedgwick realizes that General Ambrose Hill’s unit is still in place. General Joseph Hooker believes the entire Confederate Army is moving so orders further reconnaissance. General A.P. Hill moves to join General Lee the next day.
June 5, 1863 Captain Raphael Semmes and the CSS Alabama capture and burn the Union ship ’Talisman’ in the mid-Atlantic.
June 6, 1863 Dignitaries and spectators assemble at Brandy Station, Virginia to observe a grand review of 8,000 Confederate Cavalry by General J.E.B. Stuart.
June 6, 1863 To relieve pressure on Vicksburg, General Richard Taylor is ordered to attack Union positions along Milliken’s Bend, Louisiana. Elements of the 10th Illinois Cavalry detect the advance and alert Colonel Hermann Lieb, commander at Milliken’s Bend. Preparations are hastily made to meet the 4,500 men Confederate force.
June 7, 1863 Union forces advance below Vicksburg and burn Brierfield, President Jefferson Davis’s plantation.
June 7, 1863 Colonel Hermann Lieb’s 1,061 men are attacked at Milliken’s Bend at 5:30 AM and are driven back to the riverbank. Union gunboats ’Choctaw’ and ’Lexington’ arrive by 7:00 AM and direct accurate cannon fire on the attacking forces. The newly organized African-American forces of the 9th and 13th Louisiana and the 1st Mississippi fight courageously but have disproportionate losses. They kill several Confederate prisoners when they discover the Confederates killed captured black soldiers in their custody.
June 8, 1863 General Lee arrives at Culpepper Court House where General J.E.B. Stuart stages another grand review of his cavalry. The jaunty and supremely confident calvary commander delights in showing off his unit.
June 8, 1863 General Alfred Pleasanton musters 11,000 Union men at Falmouth, Virginia, to locate the main body of the Confederate Army and determine if they are moving north into Union territory on the offensive.

June 9–15, 1863

June 9, 1863 Union mortar boats fire about 175 explosive shells into Vicksburg daily while residents occupy caves and newly dug caverns. The continuous shelling cuts supply lines and has an effect on civilian morale.
June 9, 1863 The largest mounted engagement of the Civil War takes place at Brandy Station, Virginia. General John Buford crosses the Rappahannock River at Beverly while General David Gregg crosses at Kelly’s Ford. Confederate pickets are pushed back or captured and the Union Cavalry quickly moves to Brandy Station. General J.E.B. Stuart rallies his cavalry and the Confederates score a tactical victory. The Union Cavalry displays progress achieved under capable leadership and are capable adversaries through the end of the war. General Pleasanton, Union Cavalry commander, informs General Joseph Hooker that the Army of Northern Virginia is indeed moving north.
June 10, 1863 General Richard Ewell’s II Corps departs Culpepper, Virginia and moves toward Maryland. The Gettysburg Campaign is underway.
June 10, 1863 The new CSS Atlanta, a heavy ram that is a threat to all wooden vessels, enters service. Admiral Samuel F. DuPont moves the USS Weehawken and the USS Nahant, both ironclads, to Wassaw Sound, Georgia from Port Royal, South Carolina.
June 10, 1863 General Braxton Bragg is confirmed in the Episcopalian Church. He begins regular religious services for his men.
June 11, 1863 Clement Vallandigham has been shipped off to Canada by Confederate officials. Ohio Peace Democrats nominate Vallandigham as their candidate for Ohio Governor.
June 11, 1863 The 54th Massachusetts takes part in the burning of Darien, Georgia.
June 12, 1863 Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin calls out the state militia as the Confederate forces advance toward his state.
June 12, 1863 General Ewell’s Confederate II Corps crosses the Blue Ridge Mountains into the Shenandoah Valley. Marching toward Martinsburg, Ewell plans an attack on Union forces commanded by Colonel Andrew T. McReynolds but McReynolds moves to Summit Point in Western Virginia and then to Winchester. The combined Union forces at Winchester are ordered to move to Harper’s Ferry to delay the Confederate move into Pennsylvania but telegraph lines are cut and the orders are not received.
June 13, 1863 At Winchester, the Union garrison is unaware that the Confederate forces of Generals Ewell, Jubal Early, and Edward Johnson plan to encircle the town from three directions.
June 13, 1863 Federal gunboats resume their bombardment of Port Hudson, Louisiana, softening the position for a Union assault planned for the next day.
June 14, 1863 President Lincoln urges General Hooker to take some action against the Confederate forces moving north. The President’s message said, “If the head of Lee’s Army is at Martinsburg and the tail of it on the Plank Road between Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, the animal must be very slim somewhere. Could you not break him?”
June 14, 1863 General Nathaniel Banks sends an entire infantry division against Confederate defenses at Port Hudson, Louisiana. The Confederates are well placed and hold off the assault with minor causalities while Banks’ losses total 1,805. Banks decides to continue his siege as no food or supplies are reaching the Confederate garrison.
June 14, 1863 At Martinsburg, Virginia, Union forces, using artillery and skirmishers, hold off a large Confederate force. At 5:00 PM, the Union forces load equipment and supplies on waiting trains and elude a larger Confederate force for the second time in two days.
June 14, 1863 At Winchester, Union General Robert Milroy prepares to meet a “raiding party” but actually encounters the entire Army of Northern Virginia. By evening, 22 Confederate cannon begin a bombardment, and Milroy holds a war council and decides to spike his cannons, burn all baggage and supply trains, and evacuate Winchester early in the morning.
June 15, 1863 Four miles north of Winchester at Stevenson’s Point, Virginia, the Confederate force of General Edward Johnson prepares an ambush. General Milroy leaves at 1:00 AM and encounters Johnson’s forces at 3:00 AM. Only 2,700 Union soldiers escape with 2,500 prisoners taken, 905 dead, 384 wounded, and 300 horses and wagons taken. The way is clear for General Robert E. Lee’s army to invade Pennsylvania.
June 15, 1863 President Lincoln calls for 100,000 militia to muster in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Western Virginia to stop the invasion of the Confederates.

June 16–23, 1863

June 16, 1863 Panic sets in at Washington, DC, as word of General Lee’s crossing of the Potomac River at Point of Rocks, Maryland reaches the capital. General-in-chief Halleck and General Joseph Hooker exchange telegraph messages. Hooker wants to engage Lee above Washington, DC while Halleck directs the Union Army to follow Lee wherever he goes and relieve the garrison at Harpers Ferry, Virginia en route.
June 16, 1863 General Joseph Hooker positions the Army of the Potomac at Fairfax Court House, Virginia to pursue.
June 16, 1863 The USS ’New Era’ sinks nine Confederate vessels north of Island #10 in the Mississippi River. An impending attack is avoided.
June 17, 1863 The Army of Northern Virginia advances into Maryland with J.E.B. Stuart’s cavalry screening General Lee’s right flank. Union Cavalry commander Alfred Pleasanton is intent on discovering Lee’s movement plans. Cavalry engagements at Aldie and Middleburg, Virginia result in casualties on both sides with little information of future intentions.
June 18, 1863 General Alford Pleasanton is angered by the Union’s losses at Aldie and Middleburg. He makes plans to storm Middleburg and destroy it. After hard fighting, Pleasanton is ordered back to Aldie. Middleburg is quickly reoccupied by Southern Troops.
June 18, 1863 General Grant relieves General John McClernand from command of XIII Corps and moves General O.C.Ord into the position. McClernand is charged with insubordination when he denigrates the performance of other units and praises his own unit in the failed assault on Vicksburg.
June 19, 1863 General Richard Ewell crosses the Potomac into Maryland with his Confederate II Corps. Generals Ambrose Hill and James Longstreet follow en masse.
June 19, 1863 In an effort to penetrate the Confederate cavalry screen, Colonel J. Irwin Gregg leads his 16th Pennsylvania unit into Middleburg, Virginia and retakes the town.
June 20, 1863 The first national bank is created by financier Jay Cooke in Philadelphia. Union war bonds are available through the banks.
June 20, 1863 J.E.B. Stuart’s cavalry is unsupported by the Confederate Army east of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Union Cavalry General Pleasanton directs General Gregg to attack General Wade Hampton’s Confederate Cavalry at Goose Creek, Virginia while Union General John Buford threatens Stuart’s flank. General Stuart withdraws to Upperville.
June 20, 1863 The new state of West Virginia joins the Union as the 35th state. The new West Virginia constitution calls for gradual elimination of slavery.
June 21, 1863 General Hugh J. Kilpatrick’s Union Cavalry skirmishes with the Confederate screening units at Upperville, Virginia. J.E.B. Stuart withdraws to Ashby’s Gap. General Alfred Pleasanton reports to Joseph Hooker that the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia is definitely on the move.
June 22, 1863 U.S. Army General Alfred Pleasanton is promoted to major general of cavalry.
June 22, 1863 General Robert E. Lee orders J.E.B. Stuart to raid Union supply lines and to guard the army’s right flank as Lee moves into Pennsylvania. These conflicting orders take General Stuart away from the main theater of operation within the next few days.
June 22, 1863 General William Rosecrans and the Army of the Cumberland end six months of inactivity and begin a move from Murfreesboro, Tennessee to Tullahoma. This move is designed to keep Southern units stationary and away from the Vicksburg siege.
June 23, 1863 General Lee’s forces reach Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.

June 24–30, 1863

June 24, 1863 General Longstreet’s I Corps and General A. P. Hill’s III Corps cross the Potomac River into Maryland and continue on toward Pennsylvania. Near the Antietam Battlefield, skirmishing breaks out.
June 24, 1863 With the addition of the state of West Virginia, the Union “Department of West Virginia” military district is established by General Benjamin F. Kelly.
June 24, 1863 General Rosecrans continues to be hampered by downpours and heavy weather as he attempts to flank the Army of Tennessee. Rosecrans’ Army of the Cumberland skirmishes with the Army of the Tennessee near Big Spring Branch, Tennessee.
June 24, 1863 Admiral John A. B. Dahlgren succeeds Admiral Samuel Du Pont as commander of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron.
June 25, 1863 General J. E. B. Stuart encounters stiff resistance near Haymarket, Maryland when General Winfield Hancock’s II Corps approaches. Stuart continues circling further east around the Union flank. This takes Stuart out of the immediate vicinity of the operation and hinders any intelligence gathering. The position of the Federal forces following the Army of Northern Virginia are unknown to Stuart and therefore unknown to General Lee.
June 25, 1863 General Hooker sends General John Reynolds with three corps to intercept the Army of Northern Virginia as it moves north. The Federals are too late and can only follow.
June 25, 1863 Nearly 2,200 pounds of gunpowder are exploded under the 3rd Louisiana redoubt when the Union forces tunnel under the Confederate works at Vicksburg. As the Union troops move forward, they encounter additional fortifications between the blast site and Vicksburg.
June 26, 1863 General Jubal Early’s Confederate division marches through Gettysburg en route to their position at York, Pennsylvania.
June 26, 1863 General Stuart moves 23 miles further east around the Union right and crosses back into Virginia, near Fairfax Court House, Virginia.
June 26, 1863 Admiral Farragut orders a heavy bombardment of Port Hudson, Louisiana.
June 27, 1863 President Lincoln removes General Hooker as commander of the Army of the Potomac and replaces him with General George G. Meade.
June 27, 1863 J. E. B. Stuart attempts to attack General Hooker’s supply train at Fairfax Court House but meets unexpected resistance from 86 troopers from the 11th New York Cavalry. Ultimately, abandoned supplies are captured by Stuart’s Cavalry with gloves, boots, and food in abundance.
June 27, 1863 Confederate General Braxton Bragg withdraws south toward Chattanooga after skirmishing with General William Rosecrans forces at Manchester, Tennessee.
June 28, 1863 Confederate Cavalry rides to within four miles of Pennsylvania’s Capital at Harrisburg, alarming the population.
June 28, 1863 While Stuart continues to encircle the Union forces, General R. E. Lee is startled to learn the Union Armies are gathering at Frederick, Maryland.
June 28, 1863 Jubal Early’s division enters York, Pennsylvania and demands shoes, clothes, food, and $100,000. He is given a few supplies and $28,000.
June 29, 1863 The Army of the Potomac marches north through Maryland under the command of newly appointed General George G. Meade.
June 30, 1863 President Lincoln resists continuing pressure to bring General George B. McClellan back to command the Army of the Potomac.
June 30, 1863 General John F. Reynolds’ division occupies the road junction at Gettysburg and is joined by a cavalry division of General John Buford’s command. Confederate General Henry Heth’s division is sent to Gettysburg to collect shoes but is driven off. When General Heth reports that Union forces hold the middle of Gettysburg, General A. P. Hill dismisses the report insisting that all Union forces are still in Maryland.
June 30, 1863 Several skirmishes occur at Hanover, Pennsylvania, ten miles east of Gettysburg. These encounters are inconclusive but events rapidly lead to a concentration of troops from both sides at Gettysburg.

July 1–6, 1863

July 1, 1863 At the Missouri State Convention, a vote passed to completely eliminate slavery in the state on July 4, 1870.
July 1, 1883 In and around the crossroads town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, several skirmishes and some sharp fighting takes place. Confederate General Henry Heth’s division encounters dismounted Union cavalry commanded by General John Buford. The Union cavalrymen are armed with Spencer carbines and hold off Heth’s charge. Confederate General William Pender arrives to assist Heth’s division while the Union I Corps of General John Reynolds deploys around Gettysburg. Reynolds is killed and his Iron Brigade is engaged in fierce fighting. The Union XI and III Corps of Generals Oliver O. Howard and Abner Doubleday arrive, as does General Ewell’s Confederate II Corps. The Union line is pushed back through Gettysburg in confusion.
July 1, 1863 General Winfield S. Hancock’s Union II Corps occupies high ground along Cemetery Hill and most Union units locate excellent defensive positions. When General George Meade arrives near midnight, he reviews the Union positions and decides to defend in the morning.
July 1, 1863 A Confederate staff rider locates J.E.B. Stuart and orders him to join General Lee at Gettysburg.
July 1, 1863 General Rosecrans’ Union forces maneuver the Confederate forces to Chattanooga, clearing central Tennessee of Southern troops. This essentially completes the very successful Tullahoma Campaign.
July 1, 1863 General Joseph E. Johnston pushes his 32,000 men toward Vicksburg. His path is blocked by General W.T. Sherman’s XV Corps at the Big Black River.
July 2, 1863 At Gettysburg 85,000 Union troops occupy a defensive line from Culp’s Hill on the north, the entire length of Cemetery Ridge, and extend left to Little Round Top on the south. General Lee is urged by General Longstreet to withdraw but Lee determines to fight where he finds the enemy and he sends his 75,000 Confederates forward. A full day of fighting including at positions with names such as the Wheatfield, Peach Orchard, Little Round Top, and Devel’s Den becoming well known. Both sides draw off as daylight wanes.
July 2, 1863 Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens sends a letter to President Lincoln about arranging prisoner exchange and an end to war. President Lincoln declares he is not interested.
July 2, 1863 General John H. Morgan leads 2,500 Confederate cavalry across the Cumberland River beginning a foray into Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio.
July 2, 1863 The CSS Alabama captures and burns the Union ship Anna F. Schmidt in the south Atlantic.
July 3, 1863 General Lee masses artillery along Missionary Ridge west of downtown Gettysburg and positions to batter the center of the Union lines. With 140 Confederate cannons and about 100 Union artillery pieces, this is the largest artillery dual in American history. Most of the Confederate bombardment is aimed too high and does little damage. The North fires slowly to conserve ammunition and ceases firing at 3:00 PM. During this lull, General George Pickett along with Generals Johnston Pettigrew and Issac Trimble’s divisions advance across an open field. Union artillery opens fire with interlocking fields of fire and accurate rifle fire. Nearly half of the three Confederate divisions are killed or wounded with the other half retreating to Seminary Ridge.
July 3, 1863 In one last Gettysburg encounter, General J.E.B. Stuart attempts to flank the Union position and attack from the rear. Union cavalry under General David M. Gregg blocks the attempt with General George Custer’s brigade distinguishing itself with repeated headlong charges. This is the largest cavalry encounter of the war.
July 3, 1863 The Battle of Gettysburg ends with the Army of the Potomac losses listed as 2,592 killed, 12,709 wounded, and 5,150 missing (20,4510) but later estimates are around 28,000. Union losses are 3,155 dead, 14,529 wounded, and 5,365 missing (23,049).
July 3, 1863 At Vicksburg, General Pemberton and General Grant arrange an armistice and conference about surrender terms. Grant is blunt with his directions saying, “You will be allowed to march out, the officers taking with them their side arms and clothing, and the field, staff, and cavalry officers one horse each. The rank and file will be allowed all their clothing but no other property.”
July 3, 1863 Morgan’s Raiders skirmish with Union defenders at Columbia, Kentucky with heavy losses.
July 4, 1863 Confederate Vice President Stephens sails down the James River to Hampton Roads, Virginia under a flag of truce intending to meet with Union officials. Federal authorities turn him back.
July 4, 1863 General Meade is urged by President Lincoln to pursue the fleeing Confederates but Meade declines any attempt to follow.
July 4, 1863 Vicksburg surrenders ending a seven-week siege.
July 4, 1863 At Helena, Arkansas, Confederate Generals Theophilus Holmes and Sterling Price attack Union General Benjamin Prentiss’ occupying troops. Sterling Price has some success and overruns Union Battery “C” but is driven off by shore batteries and heavy fire from the ’USS Tyler’ positioned on the Mississippi River. This opens the way for the Union to capture and control Port Hudson for the rest of the war.
July 5, 1863 General George Morgan reaches Lebanon and Bardstown, Kentucky and captures 400 Union troops. General Morgan’s brother Thomas is killed in this action.
July 5, 1863 General Sherman leaves Vicksburg to recapture Jackson and drive General Joseph Johnston back from the Big Black River. Sherman has three Corps (11 Divisions) of about 40,000 men. Corps commanders are Frederick Steele, O.C. Ord, and John G. Parke.
July 6, 1863 The Confederate Army continues to retreat toward Virginia via Hagerstown, Maryland and Williamsport where they construct pontoon bridges to cross the Potomac. The river is rain swollen so there is a delay in crossing. Union Cavalry under Generals Kilpatrick and Buford surprise the Army of Northern Virginia but are held off by General Imboden with reinforcements from General J.E.B. Stuart.
July 6, 1863 Admiral Samual F. DuPont is relieved of command of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron due more to friction with Secretary of the Navy Gideon Wells than any failure of the squadron. DuPont was only in this position since June 24th.
July 6, 1863 The CSS Alabama captures and burns the ’Express,’ a Union ship sailing off Brazil. Captain Raphael Semmes has continued success. First week of July summary - Four major victories occurred this week. The most noted are Vicksburg and Gettysburg but Helena, Arkansas and the Tullahoma Campaign are all-important and mark the beginning of the end of the Confederate hopes.

July 7–13, 1863

July 7, 1863 The Army of the Potomac commanded by General Meade reoccupies Maryland Heights, Maryland after moving from Gettysburg. President Lincoln still hopes for vigorous pursuit of Lee’s army.
July 7, 1863 President Lincoln receives more detail about the fall of Vicksburg. While noting that triumph, he writes of Gettysburg: “If General Meade can complete his work, so gloriously prosecuted thus far, by the literal or substantial destruction of Lee’s Army, the rebellion will be over.”
July 7, 1863 Confederate Raider John H. Morgan skirmishes at Shepherds, Kentucky and seizes two steamers at Brandenburg, Kentucky.
July 7, 1863 Jackson, Mississippi houses about 26,000 Confederate men in hastily constructed earthworks. General Joseph E. Johnston awaits the arrival of superior Union forces under General William T. Sherman, moving east after the fall of Vicksburg.
July 8, 1863 At Port Hudson, Louisiana, negotiations for the surrender of this strategic river port city is slow until General Franklin Gardener, low on food and supplies, learns of Vicksburg. He surrenders to General Nathaniel P. Banks early the next day.
July 8, 1863 John H. Morgan’s raiders cross the Ohio River at Cumming’s Ferry, Kentucky. He raids into Indiana and Ohio. A Federal gunboat begins a 500-mile trip up the Ohio River to assist in the capture of Morgan and his men.
July 9, 1863 An accidental ordinance explosion at Fort Lyon, Virginia, kills 20 Union soldiers and 14 more are injured.
July 10, 1863 The Union Department of the South gets a new leader when General Quincy A. Gillmore is promoted to major general and replaces General David Hunter. He prepares to capture Charleston, South Carolina.
July 10, 1863 General Robert E. Lee concentrates at Williamsport, Maryland. His rearguard continues to be in contact with pursuing Union soldiers.
July 10, 1863 Morris Island in Charleston Harbor is invaded by 3,700 of General Quincy Gillmore’s force. Gillmore prepares to take Battery Wagner, a strategic position controlled by General William B. Taliaferro. The South Edisto River bridge below Morris Island becomes a Union objective to be used as a diversion and the 250 man South Carolina Colored Infantry and the 1st Connecticut Battery approach the bridge by boat. Sharpened timber spikes in the river block the way.
July 10, 1863 Admiral Dahlgren bombards Confederate positions on Morris Island, suffering minor damage from shore fire. Another period of constant shelling begins at Charleston, South Carolina.
July 10, 1863 The Mississippi state capital at Jackson, occupied by General Joseph E. Johnston’s Confederates and the objective of William T. Sherman’s occupation, is the site of heavy skirmishing.
July 11, 1863 American minister to Britain Charles F. Adams admonishes Britain Foreign Secretary Earl John Russell for the continued building of ironclads and blockade-runners for the Confederacy.
July 11, 1863 The implementation of new draft laws in New York cause a stir. Irish and other lower classes resent African Americans recently arrived from the south.
July 11, 1863 General Gilmore’s assault on Battery Wagner underestimates the number and strength of the defenses and the island geography funnels the attack through a narrow strip. Union forces are beaten back. A siege battery is established with 40 rifled cannons and mortars. A continuous barrage follows.
July 12, 1863 General George Meade surveys the Confederate earthworks at Williamsport, Maryland and decides to throw up fortifications of his own.
July 12, 1863 General John Morgan’s party reaches Vernon, Indiana.
July 13, 1863 General John M. Schofield, commanding in Missouri, arrests William McKee, editor of the “St. Louis Democrat” newspaper for alleged antiwar activity. Schofield is admonished by President Lincoln.
July 13, 1863 In New York, violent anti draft riots erupt when the initial list of names are drawn for induction. A mob of some 50,000 Irish attacks the draft office and burn it. At least 1,000 people, principally African Americans, are killed over the next four days.
July 13, 1863 At Williamsport, Maryland, General Lee deploys pontoon bridges over the Potomac River now that the water level begins to recede. General Meade orders cavalry reconnaissance of the Confederate position. Late in the day, the Army of Northern Virginia starts to move back into Virginia.
July 13, 1863 General John Morgan’s cavalry reaches Ohio. Martial law is declared in Cincinnati.
July 13, 1863 Yazoo City, Mississippi is captured by Union forces.
July 13, 1863 A Union brigade led by Colonels Nathan A.M. Dudley and Joseph S. Morgan moves down both banks of Bayou La Fourche, Louisiana. Confederate General Joseph Green strikes first with his 700 troops and the Union force retreats in confusion. Colonel Morgan panics. The disgraced Morgan is charged with being drunk and is discharged.

July 14–20, 1863

July 14, 1863 General Lee’s army continues to move across the Potomac at Williamsport, Maryland and the main body is safely into Virginia. General George Custer’s brigade and specifically General Hugh J. Kilpatrick’s 6th Michigan Cavalry division attacks two brigades of Confederates at nearby Falling Waters. Confederate General James J. Pettigrew is mortally wounded, 719 Southern soldiers are taken prisoner and three battle flags plus two cannons are captured. The invasion of the North is over.
July 14, 1863 General Meade failed to defeat the Army of Northern Virginia “in detail” as President Lincoln believed he could have. The President sent this message: “Your golden opportunity is gone and I am distressed immeasurably because of it.”
July 14, 1863 General John H. Morgan’s raiders skirmish with Union troops at Camp Dennison, just outside Cincinnati.
July 14, 1863 General Joseph Johnson attempts to intercept an ammunition train moving from Vicksburg to Jackson to resupply General Sherman’s army. The effort fails and Johnson has no recourse except to abandon Jackson, Mississippi.
July 15, 1863 Jefferson Davis stated: “The clouds are truly dark over us,” when he heard all the news from Vicksburg, Gettysburg, and Port Hudson.
July 15, 1863 Armed boats from the USS Stars and Stripes and Somerset sail to Marsh’s Island, Florida, and destroy Confederate saltworks.
July 15, 1863 Union General James Blunt assembles 3000 men, primarily Indians and African Americans, plus two artillery batteries to strike a larger force of Confederates at Elk Creek, Indian Territory once the Arkansas River becomes fordable as water recedes. Fort Gibson, located in Indian Territory is the prize.
July 16, 1863 Jackson, Mississippi is evacuated at night as General Joseph Johnson leaves the city before General Sherman’s entire force arrives. The “siege” at Jackson resulted in 1120 Union soldiers lost with 600 Confederates killed, injured, or missing.
July 16, 1863 The USS Wyoming is fired on by several Japanese shore batteries while sailing through Shimonoseki Straits, Japan. Commander of the Wyoming is David S. McDougel. A flotilla of small junks and steamers engage the Wyoming that counters with fire from heavy guns at close range. Out gunned, the Japanese vessels and shore batteries are silenced. The reported reason for this attack is the daimyo of Chosu wanted to embarrass the Tokugawa shogunate to hasten his downfall.
July 17, 1863 Battery Wagner in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina continues to be assaulted by Federal siege guns. Little damage to the bombproofs and only minor causalities are recorded.
July 17, 1863 Jackson, Mississippi is occupied by General Sherman’s army for a second time. Sherman orders General Frank P. Blair to protect civilians from looting, but vengeful Northern soldiers sack the city.
July 17, 1863 General Blunt attacks 6,000 Confederate leaning Choctaw, Cherokee, and Texans at Honey Springs, Indian Territory. Honey Springs is the largest action in Indian Territory and is the only time an African American unit meets an Indian unit. Blunt has superior fire power and prevails but the battle was a series of attacks and counterattacks with both units distinguishing themselves in battle.
July 18, 1863 An early morning major assault at Battery Wagner involves the Massachusetts 54th, an African American unit new to combat. Sergeant William H. Carney led a charge through heavy fire and mounted the Federal flag on the parapet. Sergeant Carney becomes the first African American to win the Medal of Honor. Admiral Dahlgran’s ironclads lend heavy fire and move to within 300 yards of the Confederate works, but are repulsed. The Union loss is heavy with 246 dead, 880 wounded, and 389 missing (1,515), while the Confederates suffered 36 killed, 133 injured, and five missing. The Union, under the overall command of General Quincy Gillmore, begins a siege operation after this second assault try.
July 18, 1863 General Morgan’s Raiders are located near Pomeroy, Ohio and the Federal Troops are closing in.
July 19, 1863 The New York draft riot victims are aided by merchants organizing a massive relief effort.
July 19, 1863 General Morgan and his cavalry invaders are defeated at Buffington Island on the Ohio River with 800 captives taken. Nine Federal gunboats completed a 500-mile trip in ten days and outflank Buffington Island, cutting off Morgan’s retreat. Further pursuit action results in 3,000 additional prisoners and all artillery captured.
July 19, 1863 The Army of the Potomac reaches Harper’s Ferry where they cross the Potomac River and proceed down the Shenandoah Valley.
July 20, 1863 Survivors of General Morgan’s cavalry skirmish with Union troops and local militia at Hockingport and Coal Hill, Ohio, then ride north, away from the Ohio River.

July 21–27, 1863

July 21, 1863 The USS Sallie Ward is destroyed by Confederate artillery after she ran aground at Island No. 82 on the Mississippi River.
July 22, 1863 Union losses of at least 150 vessels to Confederate raiders has resulted in loss of $12 million according to the New York Chamber of Commerce. This is testimony to the effectiveness of the CSS Alabama, Florida, and Georgia plus other Confederate vessels less well known.
July 22, 1863 The U.S. Navy establishes a four-gun battery on Morris Island in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. They bombard Fort Sumter.
July 23, 1863 The Union Army occupies Manassas Gap in western Virginia to try to stop the retreating Army of Northern Virginia from escaping into the Luray Valley and the Shenandoah. The Confederates continue to move south.
July 24, 1863 Federal General Nathaniel P. Banks is ordered to prepare to move troops from New Orleans. This preparation is in anticipation of an expedition into coastal Texas in response to perceived hostility toward the United States by the French when they move on Mexico City.
July 24, 1863 Admiral John A. B. Dahlgren bombards Battery Wagner in Charleston Harbor from his fleet of 10 vessels to aid General Quincy Gillmore’s troops as they consolidate their hold on Morris Island and Battery Wagner.
July 25, 1863 Virginia Partisan Rangers commanded by Major John Mosby twice ambush a Union scout force near Goose Creek, Virginia.
July 25, 1863 Confederate rail lines at Jackson, Mississippi are destroyed as General William T. Sherman’s force withdraws from the city. Union forces burn cotton mills and other buildings at Kingston, Liberty, and Woodville, Mississippi.
July 25, 1863 A Union force moves from Portsmouth, Virginia to Jackson, North Carolina. Confederate General Matt Whitaker is killed in the skirmish at Jackson.
July 26, 1863 John J. Crittenden, Senator from Kentucky and author of the Crittenden Comprise in 1860, dies in Frankfort, Kentucky.
July 26, 1863 General John Hunt Morgan and his small group of remaining troopers are captured at Salineville, Ohio. All are slated to be moved to the Ohio State Penitentiary in Columbus.
July 27, 1863 The Confederate raider CSS Florida sails to Bermuda, loads full of coal and ammunition, and departs for Brest, France for a major overhaul. Lieutenant John N. Maffitt commands.

July 28 – August 3, 1863

July 28, 1863 “If a victim would secure the success of our cause, I would freely offer myself.” Words of Jefferson Davis written as the pressure of the recent Confederate losses were contemplated.
July 28, 1863 Several Union wagons were seized by Major John Hunt Mosby’s partisan rangers at Aldie, Virginia. A sharp counterattack by the Union force took the wagons and supplies back.
July 28, 1863 A raid at New Smyrna, Florida captured several schooners and a large supply of cotton ready for export. The cotton was burned by the crews from the USS Beauregard, Oleander, and Sagamore.
July 29, 1863 In another blow to the Confederacy, Queen Victoria informs Parliament that she “sees no reason to depart from the strict neutrality which Her Majesty has observed from the beginning of the contest.” The Confederate leaders hoped England would call for negotiations between the North and South but these hopes faded with the losses at Vicksburg and Gettysburg, and now seem completely dead.
July 29, 1863 Admiral David G. Farragut is succeeded by Admiral Charles H Bell. Farragut sails to New York in his flagship USS Hartford.
July 30, 1863 President Lincoln threatens to execute captured Southern officers and put Southern soldiers to hard labor, if any harm came to Union officers assigned to units made up of former slaves. The same retaliation would be in effect if former slaves were returned to bondage.
July 31, 1863 Confederate forces and 1,700 Union cavalrymen skirmish at St. Catharine’s Creek, Mississippi. The Federals were led by General John A. Logan.
August 1, 1863 Confederate desertions increased drastically as the odds favoring victory declined. President Jefferson Davis offers amnesty to anyone absent without leave and warns that there is no choice but “victory, or subjugation, slavery, and utter ruin of yourselves, your families, and your country.”
August 1, 1863 Union troops corner General John Mosby’s partisans at Warrenton Junction, Virginia and take prisoners.
August 1, 1863 Confederate spy Belle Boyd is arrested at Martinsburg, West Virginia and sent to Washington D.C. to be imprisoned.
August 1, 1863 Residents of Coles County, Illinois, a hotbed of anti-war feeling, gather at Matton, Illinois to hear Peace Democrat John R. Eden denounce the Lincoln administration. The crowd was variously estimated at 3,000 to 12,000.
August 1, 1863 Admiral David D. Porter formally takes command of the naval operations along the Mississippi River.
August 2, 1863 At Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, General Quincy Gillmore orders construction of a siege battery on swampy Morris Island. An eight-inch Parrot cannon firing 200-pound projectile eventually is installed and the troops name the cannon “Swamp Angel.”
August 3, 1863 Governor Horatio Seymour asks President Lincoln to suspend conscription in his state, the scene of recent draft riots in New York City. Abraham Lincoln declines.

August 4–10, 1863

August 4, 1863 The 1st Cavalry Division, I Corps, led by General John Buford encounters Confederate troops near Brandy Station, Virginia.
August 4, 1863 Confederate crews from the CSS Chicora and Palmetto State approach Morris Island, Charleston Harbor and capture a Union picket near Vincent’s Creek.
August 5, 1863 Federal cavalry troops under General William Averell leave Winchester, Virginia and move to Franklin, West Virginia. The mission is to destroy former Confederate saltpeter and gunpowder works. West Virginia has been a state only since June 20th, 1863.
August 5, 1863 The CSS Alabama takes the Union bark ’Sea Bride’ off Cape Hope, South Africa. The ’Sea Bride’ is sold to a British merchant.
August 6, 1863 South Carolina Governor Milledge L. Bonham is urged to continue to support the defense of Charleston Harbor. President Jefferson Davis uses these words to describe the harbor: “which we pray will never be polluted by the footsteps of the lustful, relentless, inhuman foe.”
August 6, 1863 Federal gunboats are fired on as the USS Sagamon, Cohasset, and Commodore Barney move up the James River. ’Commodore Barney’ is hit 30 times, once through the boilers, disabling the vessel.
August 8, 1863 One result of the loss at Gettysburg is the resignation tendered by General Robert E. Lee. President Davis declines the offer.
August 10, 1863 Frederick Douglas meets with President Lincoln and protests the inequality of pay between white and black soldiers.
August 10, 1863 Admiral David G. Farragut reaches New York City aboard his flagship ’USS Hartford’ and receives a hero’s welcome.

August 11–17, 1863

August 11, 1863 Union positions on Morris Island, Charleston Harbor, South Carolina come under Confederate cannon fire from Battery Wagner, Fort Sumter, and James Island.
August 11, 1863 Major John Mosby leads his Virginia Partisan Rangers in a raid on Union forces near Annandale, Virginia. Nineteen wagons are taken.
August 12, 1863 General John McClernand sees his military career end when President Lincoln does not select him for a new position. He lost his command at Vicksburg when he disobeyed General Grant’s order.
August 12, 1863 Federal troops countered Confederate battery fire with heavy Parrott rifles on Morris Island. The brick structures at Fort Sumter and Battery Wagner were heavily damaged and many guns were knocked off their mounts.
August 12, 1863 The experimental CSS Hunley, a novelty submarine, heads by rail from Mobile to Charleston Harbor to help defend against the Union flotilla. The vessel is 40 feet long and three and a half feet in diameter, and propelled by a crankshaft screw operated by five men.
August 14, 1863 General Meade visits Washington, D.C., to meet with President Lincoln and his cabinet. Army of the Potomac strategy is discussed.
August 14, 1863 Five captive sisters of known Confederate guerrillas are killed when a building collapses in Kansas City, Missouri. The guerrilla bands plot retaliation.
August 15, 1863 The CSS Hunley arrives at Charleston Harbor from Mobile. General P.G.T. Beauregard, commanding the city’s defenses, is anxious to use the new invention.
August 16, 1863 General Rosecrans begins to move his Army of the Cumberland south from Tullahoma toward Chattanooga after considerable prodding. He splits his army to cover three mountain passes, a risky maneuver. General Burnside leaves Lexington, Kentucky about the same time and Rosecrans plans to catch Braxton Bragg’s Confederates between the two forces.
August 17, 1863 General Quincy A. Gillmore orders 11 heavy guns on Morris Island to commence saturation bombardment of Fort Sumter. They fire 938 shots the first day and further reduce the brick structure.
August 17, 1863 Admiral John Dahlgren’s squadron moves into position to attack the Confederate defenses at Charleston Harbor. He has 15 ships and they concentrate fire on various defensive positions. A counter fire shot from Fort Sumter kills Captain J.W. Rodgers of the USS Catskill.

August 18–24, 1863

August 18, 1863 President Lincoln test-fires the new Spencer carbine, a rapid-fire weapon. The Federal units now have a decidedly superior weapon compared to the muzzle loaders used by the Confederate soldier.
August 18, 1863 Fort Sumter continues to be bombarded by cannon fire. The Confederate garrison holds on in the masonry ruins of the fort.
August 18, 1863 At Pueblo, Colorado, Federal troops commanded by Colonel Kit Carson skirmish with Pueblo Indians.
August 19, 1863 The military draft, suspended in New York City due to rioting, resumes with no further violence.
August 19, 1863 Saltpeter works in Franklin, West Virginia are destroyed by General William Averell’s men. This works was formerly operated by Confederates but abandoned when West Virginia became a state.
August 20, 1863 William C. Quantrill leads his Confederate force in a raid into Kansas.
August 20, 1863 Colonel Kit Carson begins a campaign against Ute, Zuni, Navajo, and Mescalero Indians in New Mexico Territory. All captives are resettled on the Bosque Redondo reservation.
August 21, 1863 General Quincy Gilmore’s huge Parrott gun called “Swamp Angel” is in position to fire on the Charleston waterfront from swampy Morris Island. When fully functional, this weapon could lob 200-pound incendiary projectiles some 7,900 yards.
August 21, 1863 Quantrill and his 450 Confederate and Missouri irregulars reach Lawrence, Kansas. They encounter Kansas Jayhawkers and commence the largest atrocity of the war, condemned by both North and South, when they round-up and execute about 180 men and boys, then burn at least 185 buildings.
August 21, 1863 The Confederate CSS Torch, a torpedo boat, attacks but fails to destroy the USS New Ironsides in the channel off Morris Island, South Carolina. The ’Torch’ pilot, James Carlin, approached to within 40 yards of the New Ironsides where he cut his engines and planned to drift into the Union vessel. Prevailing current turned the ’Torch’ so that the approach was alongside. The New Ironsides crew worked to depress their main gun low enough to sink the intruder but the CSS Torch restarted engines and reached the harbor amid constant fire.
August 22, 1863 The “Swamp Angel” is disabled while firing it’s 36th round and abandoned. Some early incendiary rounds caused fire damage on shore.
August 22, 1863 Admiral Dahlgren moves his ironclad fleet closer to Fort Sumter to complete the destruction of the fort. The USS Passaic accidentally grounds near the fort and the fleet withdraws, having accomplished very little.
August 23, 1863 Union gunners fire 5,009 rounds into Fort Sumter and reduce it to rubble. The garrison, with only one gun still mounted, refuses to yield.
August 23, 1863 Admiral Dahlgren moves his fleet back to Charleston Harbor and next concentrates on Fort Moultrie. Fog rolls in and Dahlgren signals the fleet to again withdraw.
August 24, 1863 Major John Mosby begins a protracted raid against Union forces camped near Warrenton Junction and Alexandria, Virginia.

August 25–31, 1863

August 25, 1863 At Battery Wagner, Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, Union infantry attacking Confederate rifle pits are forced to retreat.
August 25, 1863 General Thomas Ewing, commander of the Union Border District, issues controversial General Order No. 11. The inhabitants of three Missouri counties were ordered to leave their homes for aiding and assisting guerrillas. The homes were then burned with about 20,000 people displaced. General James Lane, a noted Union frontier jayhawker and well known politician, nearly ruined Ewing’s military reputation when he insisted that these harsh measures be ordered and enforced. Thomas Ewing was a native of Lancaster, Ohio.
August 25, 1863 Additional saltpeter mines are destroyed along Jackson’s River, West Virginia. Union General William Averell then moves west toward White Sulphur Springs.
August 26, 1863 General Averell’s Union Cavalry skirmishes heavily with Confederate forces at White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. With 2,000 troopers, Averell’s cavalry equals the Confederates’ force under Colonel George S. Patton, sent to stop the Union destruction. Averell dismounts to attack across a densely wooded area and is defeated with loss of 26 dead, 125 wounded, and 67 captured. Averell then moves on to Calligan’s Station.
August 26, 1863 Union troops defeat Colonel Stand Watie’s Cherokee Confederates at Perryville, Indian Territory. General James Blunt is the Union leader.
August 26, 1863 Union troops again storm the rifle pits fronting Battery Wagner and gain the advantage.
August 27, 1863 General Averell ends his raid into West Virginia and reaches Beverly.
August 29, 1863 The experimental submarine CSS Hunley sinks in Charleston Harbor while on a trial run. Six of Lieutenant John A. Payne’s crew are killed. The wake of a passing steamer while hatches were still open for ventilation was the apparent cause.
August 29, 1863 General William Rosecrans and his Union forces flank the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Braxton Bragg and his Confederate forces must soon fight or fall back.
August 30, 1863 Fort Sumter remains the focus of Union bombardment from Morris Island where the Union batteries are located.
August 30, 1863 U.S. Marines assigned to the Mississippi River Squadron capture 35 prisoners and three Confederate paymasters at Boliver, Mississippi. They were carrying $2.2 million of Confederate currency.
August 31, 1863 The Army of the Potomac Union XII Corps gets a new commander with General Alpheus S. Williams taking command.

September 1–7, 1863

September 1, 1863 Tennessee Governor Isham G. Harris is reassured by President Jefferson Davis that troops, rifles, and supplies are being sent to General Braxton Bragg’s forces.
September 1, 1863 Union vessels fire another 627 rounds toward Fort Sumter and Battery Wagner at Charleston. Both positions continue to resist.
September 1, 1863 General Rosecrans crosses the Tennessee River and marches his force toward Chattanooga, Tennessee.
September 1, 1863 At Charleston Harbor, Admiral Dahlgren leads his ironclads in action against Fort Sumter. This night action allows the vessels to move to within 500 yards where they begin firing. The attack is suspended at daybreak. Shore batteries score 70 hits on the ironclads.
September 2, 1863 Alabama’s State Legislature approves the use of slaves to fill their military manpower shortage.
September 2, 1863 Union forces construct earthworks within 80 yards of Battery Wagner on Morris Island, South Carolina. Confederate authorities prepare an evacuation plan.
September 2, 1863 General William Rosecrans’ Army of the Cumberland pursues retreating Confederates crossing the Tennessee River.
September 2, 1863 General Burnside’s Union force occupies Knoxville, Tennessee, which stalls all Confederate rail traffic between eastern and western Tennessee. Rail transport for the Confederate forces must now move through Georgia en route to or from Virginia and western Tennessee.
September 4, 1863 At New Orleans, General Ulysses S. Grant is badly injured in a fall from his horse.
September 4, 1863 Confederate guerrillas capture four prisoners from the 18th Iowa at Quincy, Missouri. They execute the four men. Federal forces ambush Confederate bushwhackers at Big Creek, Missouri and six southerners are killed.
September 4, 1863 A joint amphibious expedition is planned by Admiral John H. Bell of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron. The ships will sail from New Orleans to Sabine Pass, Texas to dissuade French occupation forces in Mexico from crossing the Rio Grande.
September 5, 1863 British Secretary Lord Russell confiscates the two “Laird Rams” that Britain built for the Confederacy. American Ambassador Charles F. Adams urged the delivery to be stopped. A diplomatic sore point between Washington D.C. and London ended with Lord Russell’s intervention.
September 5, 1863 General William Rosecrans divides his army into three units to cover three widely spaced mountain passes. Rosecrans is convinced that Braxton Bragg will soon flee Chattanooga. Meanwhile, President Jefferson Davis asks General Bragg, “What is your plan of Operation? Can you ascertain intentions of the enemy?”
September 6, 1863 General Beauregard secretly evacuates Battery Wagner and Battery Gregg on Morris Island. This concludes 60 days of nearly continuous bombardment by Union land and naval forces and the loss of about 300 of the 900 man Confederate force.
September 7, 1863 Admiral Dahlgren demands the surrender of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. When the defenders refuse, the USS Weehawken and the USS New Ironsides approach the fort. The Weehawken runs aground and the New Ironsides protects the stricken ship by moving between Fort Moultrie and the vessel. The USS New Ironsides takes an additional 50 direct hits and both vessels retire to make repairs.
September 7, 1863 Army General William B. Franklin arrives off the bar at Sabine Pass, Texas and joins Admiral Bell in this joint exercise.

September 8–14, 1863

September 8, 1863 With the final conquest of Battery Wagner, General Quincy Gillmore joins Admiral John A. B. Dahlgren in an amphibious expedition against Fort Sumter.
September 8, 1863 General Braxton Bragg leaves Chattanooga with his 65,000 men and moves south toward Lafayette, Georgia.
September 8, 1863 At the mouth of the Sabine River near the Texas/Louisiana border, a 42-man battery from the 1st Texas Heavy Artillery engages Union General William B. Franklin’s 4,000-man amphibious expedition. Lieutenant Richard Dowling (age 20) of the 1st Texas positions his six heavy smoothbore cannons at Fort Griffin and waits for the Union vessels to move within close range. He also sets range markers in the river. Two of the four gunboats are disabled with 19 dead, 37 missing, and 315 captured. Dowling’s unit suffers no casualties prompting President Davis to state: “One of the most brilliant and heroic achievements in the history of warfare.” General Banks shifts his attention to the Rio Grande.
September 9, 1863 The “Laird Rams” built in Britain are officially prevented from entering Confederate service by action of the British government.
September 9, 1863 General James Longstreet’s I Corps of General Robert E. Lee’s army is detached and sent to Lafayette, Georgia to reinforce Braxton Bragg’s Army of the Tennessee.
September 9, 1863 General Ambrose Burnside regains control of the Cumberland Gap in eastern Tennessee.
September 9, 1863 Chattanooga surrenders to General Rosecrans without a shot being fired. Bragg’s army reaches Lafayette, Georgia and awaits reinforcements. Lafayette is about 28 miles south of Chattanooga, Tennessee.
September 9, 1863 At Charleston Harbor, Fort Sumter again comes under assault from Admiral Dahlgren’s gunboats. The Confederates had earlier recovered a code book from the sunken USS Keokuk and could decipher Union signals so were aware of the attack. They rebuffed the Union advance and took about 100 prisoners. Admiral Dahlgren requested additional monitor craft from Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles but was refused. The Charleston Harbor bombardment ceased and became a blockade.
September 10, 1863 Georgia troops sack the "North Carolina Standard’ newspaper office when an editorial favoring a negotiated settlement with the Union was published.
September 10, 1863 Rosecrans’ army is widely disbursed with General Alexander Cook’s corps at Alpine, Georgia, the XIV Corps at McLamore’s Cove, and General Thomas Crittenden’s XXI Corps at Chattanooga. Rosecrans is unaware that Braxton Bragg is regrouping and receiving reinforcements at Lafayette, Georgia.
September 11, 1863 President Lincoln authorized General Andrew Johnson, Military Governor of Tennessee, to form a civilian government in his state. President Lincoln also does not accept General Burnside’s latest attempt to resign.
September 12, 1863 Heavy skirmishing takes place below Chattanooga between scattered Confederate and Union forces.
September 13, 1863 General R. E. Lee, weakened by the detachment of Longstreet’s corp, falls back across the Rapidan River. General George Meade occupies Culpeper Court House as the Confederates evacuate.
September 13, 1863 General Ulysses S. Grant is instructed to transfer all available forces from Corinth, Mississippi to Tuscumbia, Alabama in support of General William Rosecrans at Chattanooga.
September 13, 1863 General Leonidas K. Polk is ordered to attack Crittenden’s isolated XXI Corps at Lee and Gordon’s Mill, northern Georgia. Polk waits for more reinforcements and fails to move. General Rosecrans recognizes the danger his scattered army faces and all three corps begin to consolidate at Lee and Gordon’s Mill on Chickamauga Creek.
September 14, 1863 General Meade crosses the Rapadan River seeking to find General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Skirmishes at Somerville, Raccoon, and Robert’s Fords, Virginia result.

September 15–21, 1863

September 15, 1863 Six Confederate soldiers were killed in an accidental magazine explosion at Battery Cheves, James Island, South Carolina.
September 15, 1863 Confederate General Braxton Bragg and Union General William Rosecrans move toward a final confrontation following a skirmish at Catlett’s Gap, Georgia.
September 16, 1863 General Rosecrans’ Army of the Cumberland takes up positions along Chickamauga Creek, 12 miles below Chattanooga, Tennessee.
September 17, 1863 A skirmish between Confederate and Union forces takes place at Owen’s Ford, West Chickamauga Creek, Georgia. Bragg misses his last opportunity to attack the Army of the Cumberland while the corps are still separated. Rosecrans completes his move and prepares for a major clash.
September 18, 1863 Fighting begins across Chickamauga Creek. The Confederates outnumber the Union forces 68,000 to 58,000 men. General Bragg attempts to move his army between Rosecrans’ army and the Union supply base at Chattanooga but is delayed. Rosecrans, fearing he is being outflanked, directs General George Thomas on a lengthy night march.
September 19, 1863 The Battle of Chickamauga begins when General Thomas’s XIV Corps meets General Nathan B. Forrest’s cavalry on the Union left. Fighting escalates and both army commanders become consumed in directing additional troops into the hottest spots. The battle becomes a series of piecemeal struggles on the immediate front with mounting losses on both sides. That evening, General James Longstreet’s I Corps arrives and General Bragg appoints Longstreet to command the left wing and Leonidas Polk to direct the right.
September 20, 1863 Braxton Bragg plans an assault at dawn but confusion and delays stall the advance until after 9:00AM. About 10:30AM, a Southern charge on the Union center nearly pushes to the Lafayette Road. Rosecrans is mistakenly informed that a gap has formed in the center of his line and he directs General Thomas Wood’s division to plug the gap. As General Wood pulls his troops out of line to fill the gap, General Longstreet’s six brigades pour through, pushing the Union center and right along with General Roscrans and other officers into a full retreat.
September 20, 1863 In the afternoon, General George Thomas establishes a strong defensive position along Snodgrass Hill. Several assaults on Thomas’s position are beaten back. Union gains were realized when General Gordon Granger disobeyed General Rosecrans and rushed his Reserve Corps forward to support General Thomas. General Granger held the flag of 115th Illinois aloft throughout the heavy fighting and General Thomas stubbornly held Snodgrass Hill with determination. General George Thomas is credited with saving the Army of the Cumberland and gained the “Rock of Chickamauga” designation. Fighting ceases at nightfall.
September 20, 1863 Fighting stopped by evening and General Thomas orders his 21st Ohio, 89th Ohio, and 22nd Michigan to hold the ridge above McFarland’s Gap until his column passes through. The units are out of ammunition and hold the pass with bayonets alone. Most of the soldiers in these units were captured but only after Thomas’s column passed through. The Battle of Chickamauga is the bloodiest in the western theatre with each side suffering about 28% loss through killed, wounded and missing. Confederate loss is 17,804 and Union loss is 16,179. General Daniel H. Hill called Chickamauga “A Barren Victory.” Both Generals Bragg and Rosecrans suffer blows to their reputations; Bragg for his lackluster leadership and failure to pursue the Army of the Cumberland and Rosecrans for his lack of managing during and after the battle.
September 20, 1863 Confederate General Ben Hardin Helm, President Lincoln’s brother-in-law is killed at Chickamauga. Both the President and Mrs. Lincoln mourn the loss.
September 21, 1863 General Ambrose E. Burnside refuses to leave Knoxville to reinforce General Rosecrans even with repeated orders from President Lincoln.
September 21, 1863 General George Thomas abandons Rossville Gap and reaches Chattanooga in good order. Confederate pursuit is lax.

September 22–28, 1863

September 22, 1863 General Rosecrans tries to rally his Army of the Cumberland, now in Chattanooga after being defeated at Chickamauga. General Ulysses S. Grant sends three divisions of the XV Corps from Vicksburg to assist. General William Tecumseh Sherman is sent to assist Rosecrans.
September 22, 1863 The Confederate Army of Tennessee occupies the high ground around Chattanooga. A siege operation soon begins.
September 22, 1863 Naval attacks and counter attacks continue. The Union Schooners ’Samuel Pearsall’ and ’Alexandria’ are seized by Confederate raiders aboard the commandeered ’Alliance’ in Chesapeake Bay. The USS ’Connecticut’ captures British blockade runner ’Juno’ off Wilmington, North Carolina. The USS ’Desoto’ recaptures the Federal tug ’Leviathan’ in the Gulf of Mexico, and the crew of the USS ’Seneca’ destroys salt works near Darien, Georgia.
September 23, 1863 In the largest ever shuttle of military personnel during the Civil War, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton directs the transfer of 20,000 men of the XI and XII Corps from the Army of the Potomac to Chattanooga. They are moved by rail over 1,233 miles of track with seven different railroad companies and at least two different track gauges.
September 23, 1863 The commandeered ’Alliance’ is run aground by the USS ’Thomas Freeborn’ and burned at Milford Haven, Virginia.
September 24, 1863 Ambrose D. Mann is appointed special agent to the Papal State in Rome by the Confederate government. This after Britain informed the Confederate government that they would not become involved in the United States Civil War.
September 24, 1863 General Joseph Hooker is appointed to command the XI and XII Corps enroute to Chattanooga. General Rosecrans moves his force into the City of Chattanooga rather than defend Missionary Ridge or Lookout Mountain, both naturally strong positions. Rosecrans adds to his timid reputation.
September 25, 1863 President Lincoln drafts a letter scolding General Ambrose E. Burnside for failing to reinforce General Rosecrans at Chickamauga. He wrote in frustration “.... to get you to assist General Rosecrans, and you have repeatedly declared you would do it, and yet you move the contrary way”. The letter was never completed or sent.
September 27, 1863 President Lincoln orders General Burnside at Knoxville to forward reinforcements to assist at Chattanooga and follows with this message: “My order to you meant simply that you should save Rosecrans from being crushed out, believing if he lost his position, you could not hold East Tennessee in any event.”
September 27, 1863 General Braxton Bragg orders General Joseph Wheeler to use his cavalry to raid the 60-mile long Union supply line that goes through the Sequatchie Valley. Wheeler has no experience as a raider but tells subordinates: “I have my orders, gentlemen, and I will attempt the work.”
September 28, 1863 General William Rosecrans accuses Generals Alexander McCook and Thomas Crittenden with failing to obey orders at Chickamauga. They are both relieved of command pending a court of inquiry.

September 29 – October 5, 1863

September 29, 1863 Confederate Cavalry under General John S. Williams overruns and takes the Union position at Jonesborough, Tennessee.
September 30, 1863 On the Sanibel River, Florida, the USS Rosalie captures the British blockade runner “Dictator.”
October 1, 1863 President Lincoln sends this message to General John M. Schofield, Union Commander in Missouri: “Your immediate duty, in regard to Missouri, now is to advance the efficiency of that establishment and to so use, as far as practicable, to compel the excited people there to leave one another alone.” In Lincoln’s view, the time had come where civilian rule and domestic tranquility should replace the guerrilla warfare.
October 1, 1863 General Robert Ransom arrives in Jonesboro, Tennessee and directs General Williams to use his 1,700-man Confederate cavalry troop to seize the Cumberland Gap. General Williams moves through the Cumberland Gap and occupies Greenville, exceeding his orders.
October 1, 1863 General Joseph Hooker reaches Nashville, Tennessee and awaits the arrival of his XI and XII Corps.
October 1, 1863 Colonel George Crook, commanding the 4th Ohio Cavalry at Smith’s Cross Roads, Tennessee, skirmishes with General Joseph Wheeler’s 4,000 Confederate cavalry. Wheeler is trying to disrupt Union supply lines. Marauding Southerners capture a large Federal wagon train.
October 2, 1863 The XI and XII Corps reach Bridgeport, Alabama after an impressive journey by rail. They are about 50 miles from Chattanooga.
October 2, 1863 General Joseph Wheeler’s cavalry attacks a Union supply train in the Sequatchie Valley, Tennessee and captures 800 wagons, 1,200 prisoners, and 4,000 mules.
October 2, 1863 The Army of the Cumberland begins to suffer food shortages in Chattanooga.
October 3, 1863 President Lincoln designates the last Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.
October 3, 1863 Ex-slaves are authorized to enlist in Maryland, Tennessee, and Missouri by order of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton.
October 3, 1863 Union batteries on Morris Island, Charleston Harbor, South Carolina end the bombardment of the remnants of Ft. Sumter after 560 more shells are directed toward that target.
October 3, 1863 Union forces are compelled to withdraw from Greenville, Tennessee after General John Williams’ cavalry attacks General Samuel P. Carter’s cavalry troops. McMinnville, Tennessee is seized by General John A. Warton’s 2,500 Confederate Cavalrymen who take 585 Union prisoners.
October 3, 1863 In the west, General William B. Franklin leads his 19,500 Union XIX Corps from Berwick Bay, Louisiana westward toward Fort Bisland, Louisiana. General Cadwaller C. Washburn moves his XIII Corps from Berwick to Bayou Carrion Crow. Both columns plan to move up to Bayou Tech as far as Lafayette and then into Texas.
October 5, 1863 General Hooker’s XI and XII Corps arrive at the besieged city of Chattanooga. Lead elements of XV Corps from Vicksburg also arrive.
October 5, 1863 At Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, the low silhouette torpedo boat “CSS David” steams out of the harbor to attack the USS New Ironside. One special feature of the “CSS David” is an exploding spar used to jab an enemy ship at or below the waterline. As the Confederate ship approaches the New Ironside, she is hit by small arms fire as the Union crew defends. The spar explosive is detonated and both ships are damaged. The CSS David’s boilers are extinguished by the blast and she is dead in the water alongside the New Ironside. The boilers are eventually relit and the “CSS David” steams away. Admiral Dahlgren anticipates further attacks.

October 6–12, 1863

October 6, 1863 Confederate raiders attack Union positions at Humansville, Missouri. General James R. Chambers commands. General Joseph Selby’s Confederate Cavalry skirmishes near Coldwater River, Mississippi, and Union General Robert B. Mitchell’s 2nd Cavalry Division drives General Joseph Wheeler’s cavalry to the banks of the Duck River before they escape.
October 6, 1863 At Baxter Springs, Kansas, Confederate guerrilla leader William C. Quantrill attacks Union troops. Quantrill is surprised when 90 men of the 2nd Kansas Colored Infantry and the 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry repel his attack on what he thought was an isolated post. A second column of Quantrill’s raiders attack General James G. Blunt’s troops as they move from Fort Scott to Fort Smith, Arkansas. The guerillas are dressed in captured blue uniforms and move close to Blunt’s unit before they start firing. Only one-third of the Union force escapes. One casualty is the son of General Samuel R. Curtis, and Blunt is ultimately dismissed from the Army for negligence.
October 7, 1863 Robert E. Lee plans to strike the right flank of the Army of the Potomac now located south of the Rapidan River. Lee is aware that two corps of the Union Army have detached to Chattanooga.
October 9, 1863 General Lee moves across the Rapidan River and marches toward Washington, D.C. Lee’s army is also short handed as one corps has been sent to Tennessee. Lee musters the II Corps of Ewell’s Army and the III Corps of Ambrose P. Hill’s forces, plus J.E.B. Stuart’s Cavalry to bolster his force.
October 9, 1863 General Joseph Wheeler continues to be successful in the West. At Muscle Shoals, Alabama, he captures more Union supplies and men bringing his total for the week to 2,000 Union casualties, 1,000 wagons captured, five bridges burned, miles of track destroyed, and millions of dollars of Union equipment captured or destroyed. The Army of the Cumberland, already short of supplies in Chattanooga, goes on half rations due to this largest destructive raid of the war.
October 10, 1863 The War Department orders additional gunboats in support of General W.T. Sherman at Eastport, Tennessee.
October 10, 1863 General Meade informs a disappointed President Lincoln that he is falling back behind the Rappahannock River to stay between General Lee’s army and Washington D.C. General Lee takes the offensive and moves toward Meade’s Army of the Potomac.
October 10, 1863 Confederate authorities attempt to suppress mounting Union sentiment at Elizabeth City and Edonton, North Carolina by sending 1,000 southern troops to support conscription efforts.
October 10, 1863 President Jefferson Davis arrives in Chattanooga, Tennessee to confer with General Braxton Bragg over military strategy. Unrest between Bragg and his senior subordinates was most likely the major topic of discussion.
October 11, 1863 Heavy skirmishing erupts near the Rapidan and Rappahannock Rivers as the Confederate Army occupies Culpeper, Virginia. General A.P. Hill moves his III Corps around the Union right while General Ewell moves along the Orange and Alexandria Railroad.
October 12, 1863 Confederates at Fort Morgan, Mobile Bay, Alabama fire on the USS Kenawha and Eugenia as they chase a Confederate steamer.

October 13–19, 1863

October 13, 1863 Elections in Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, and Pennsylvania resulted in Republican governors being elected. Governor Curtin of Pennsylvania was pro war and a staunch Lincoln ally while Peace Democrat Clement Vallandigham, running in Ohio, was defeated and exiled to Canada.
October 13, 1863 President Jefferson Davis approves the transfer of General Daniel H. Hill out of Braxton Bragg’s command. Bragg asked for this approval during President Davis’s recent visit to Georgia.
October 14, 1863 General A.P. Hill discovers the rear guard of General Meade’s Army fording the Broad Run at Bristoe Station near Warrenton, Virginia. He decides to attack and commits two brigades of General Heath’s division to attack General George Sykes’ V Corps. Unknown to either General Hill or General Sykes, the entire II Corps of General Gouveneur K. Warren is in wait behind a railroad embankment, positioned at a right angle to the Confederate line. A continuous artillery and musket attack led to a one-sided slaughter. When Hill tried to explain the huge death toll, General Lee curtly replied, “Bury these poor men and let us say no more about it.”
October 15, 1863 The experimental submarine ’CSS Hunley’ flounders for a second time in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. This just one day prior to the planned use of the Hunley in combat. All seven crewmen, including the inventor of the craft, Horace L. Hunley, died. General Beauregard ordered the vessel raised and prepared for service.
October 16, 1863 President Lincoln sends a message through General Halleck’s office urging General George Meade to attack General Robert E. Lee’s force. Meade again resists any suggestion regarding troop use. General Lee moves to a strong defensive position behind the Rappahannock.
October 16, 1863 General Ulysses S. Grant takes control of the new Military Division of the Mississippi which is a combination of the old Departments of the Ohio, the Cumberland, and the Tennessee. Grant now controls military operations from the Appalachians to the Mississippi River.
October 17, 1863 A call for 300,000 additional volunteers is issued by President Lincoln.
October 17, 1863 General Lee marches his Army of Northern Virginia away from Bull Run. To mask this move, General J.E.B. Stuart divides his cavalry command, sending General Wade Hampton’s brigade through Gainesville and Haymarket while General Fitzhugh Lee moves his brigade toward Manassas Junction and Bristoe Station.
October 17, 1863 General Rosecrans is formally relieved from the Army of the Cumberland at Chattanooga. General George Thomas takes command and declares “We will hold this town till we starve.”
October 18, 1863 Confederate divers locate the CSS Hunley and begin recovery operations.
October 18, 1863 Major John S. Mosby leads his men to capture 100 horses, prisoners, and equipment near Annandale, Virginia. General John Imboden’s Confederates capture 250 men of the 9th Maryland at Charles Town, West Virginia.
October 18, 1863 Near Groveton, Virginia, General Stuart encounters General Hugh Kilpatrick’s Union Cavalry. Stuart withdraws to wait for General Fitzhugh Lee’s second brigade. Once the forces unite, they decide to wait until morning, then attack Kilpatrick’s left flank and rear as Kilpatrick attempts to cross the Broad Run.
October 19, 1863 General Stuart’s cavalry attacks General Kilpatrick’s calvary forces at Warrenton. Kilpatrick sends General Custer’s Michigan brigade into the trap of Lee’s 2nd Virginia cavalry secretly posted at Buckland Mills near Broad Run. Custer is routed and flees. Kilpatrick orders a retreat and the Confederates give chase. A five mile pursuit finally ends with 150 prisoners taken and 8 wagons captured. The Southern horsemen hereafter called this engagement the “Buckland Races.”
October 19, 1863 General Robert E. Lee was unsuccessful in luring General Meade into battle but the Union forces were pushed back about 40 miles from the Rappahannock River. General Lee established a defensive position along the Rappahannock River with bridgeheads at Kelly’s Ford and Rappahannock Station. The Bristoe Campaign ended with 1,381 Confederates lost and 2,292 Union dead, missing, or wounded.

October 20–26, 1863

October 20, 1863 At Murrell’s Inlet, North Carolina, the crew of the USS T. A. Ward sends a party ashore to locate fresh water. The party is surprised by Confederate cavalry and 10 men are captured.
October 20, 1863 Union General Cadwallader Colden Washburn is named commander of the XIII Corps in Mississippi. Prior to the Civil War, several Washburn brothers started Washburn Flour Company, forerunner of General Mills.
October 21, 1863 Opelousas, Louisiana is occupied by Union forces under General William B. Franklin. This is the end point of the Bayou Teche operation.
October 22, 1863 Major John S. Mosby’s partisan rangers are overrun near Annandale, Virginia.
October 22, 1863 Admiral David D. Porter advises General William T. Sherman that no steamer should be allowed to dock at any ports except military or gunboat protected ports. This after the unescorted Union steamer ’Mist’ is destroyed by Confederate guerrillas at Ship Island, Mississippi.
October 23, 1863 General Leonidas Polk is relieved of command as corps commander of the Army of Tennessee by President Jefferson Davis and replaced by General William Hardee. Tension between General Braxton Bragg and Polk led to this command change.
October 23, 1863 General U. S. Grant arrives in Chattanooga and takes command of the Army of the Cumberland. General George Thomas accompanies Grant to study Confederate positions below Lookout Mountain. Grant then orders a new supply route west of Chattanooga from Bridgeport. This so-called “cracker line” weakens the Confederate siege. General Sherman’s XV Corps and Joseph Hooker’s XI and XII Corps are expected to arrive in Chattanooga within days.
October 24, 1863 General Grant begins to extend the “cracker line” on the Tennessee River below Raccoon Mountain.
October 24, 1863 General Grant names General William T. Sherman as commander of the Army of the Tennessee effective as soon as Sherman’s army arrives in Chattanooga.
October 25, 1863 Confederate forces led by General John S. Marmaduke occupy Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
October 26, 1863 Union batteries again pound the remains of Fort Sumter firing 625 heavy rounds into the crumbled structure.
October 26, 1863 General William B. Hazen of IV Corps directs the laying of a pontoon bridge across the Tennessee River at Brown’s Ferry, opposite Raccoon Mountain and near Confederate outposts. A bridgehead is established when the 15th Alabama is routed by General John B. Turchin’s brigade. The siege is broken.

October 27 – November 2, 1863

October 27, 1863 General Ulysses S. Grant directs General W. T. Sherman to move quickly toward Chattanooga from Meridian, Mississippi where Sherman’s army was resting after the Vicksburg victory. General in Chief Halleck previously had ordered Sherman to repair rail lines while in route.
October 27, 1863 General Joseph Hooker moves to re-open the Tennessee River to Union supply lines into Chattanooga. Hooker moves the XI and XII Corps from Bridgeport, Alabama toward Brown’s Ferry and directs General John Geary’s XII Corps to guard Union lines of communication. This large Union presence forces General Evander M. Law’s division of Confederates to abandon Raccoon Mountain and move to the west side of Lookout Mountain.
October 28, 1863 General Longstreet is ordered to mount an attack on the Union bridgehead at Brown’s Ferry by General Braxton Bragg. General Longstreet instead sends General Micah Jenkins’ division to Wauhatchie Station to attack the Union rearguard. After becoming lost at night, Jenkins is late to attack and General Geary mounts a strong defense of his position.
October 29, 1863 In a series of bombardments of Fort Sumter, the Union expends 2,691 rounds, killing 33 Confederate guards. The defenders still refuse to yield.
October 29, 1863 President Davis continues his morale building tour in the Deep South with a stop in Atlanta, Georgia. He agrees to allow General Nathan B. Forrest to detach from the Army of Tennessee after a long running feud with General Bragg, Forrest’s Commanding Officer. Forrest now operates as an independent command in northern Mississippi.
October 29, 1863 General Micah Jenkins’ division is held off by General Geary’s Federal troops once again with causalities in both armies. The fragile supply line into Chattanooga remains secure.
October 30, 1863 Unionists gather at Fort Smith, Arkansas to elect representatives to the U.S. Congress.
October 30, 1863 The Army of the Cumberland is re-supplied when the Federal transport ’Chattanooga’ docks at Chattanooga on the Tennessee River.
October 30, 1863 The USS Lexington, Hastings, Key West, Cricket, Tobb, Romeo, and Peosta steam from the Mississippi River into the Tennessee River in support of General William T. Sherman.
October 31, 1863 Shelling of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina resumes with an additional 768 rounds fired over the next two days.
November 1, 1863 The attempt to reach Sabine Pass, Texas, via the Bayou Teche is abandoned when General William B. Franklin withdraws from Opelousas, Louisiana back to New Iberia.
November 1, 1863 Additional Union steam transports arrive at Brown’s Ferry, Tennessee ending Braxton Bragg’s siege of Chattanooga. The hungry troops at first get mainly hard tack, leading to the new route being called the “Cracker Line.”
November 2, 1863 The Gettysburg Union Cemetery committee invites President Lincoln to speak at the dedication ceremony scheduled for November 19. Lincoln accepts the invitation, surprising the committee members.
November 2, 1863 President Davis visits Charleston, South Carolina where he witnesses another 793 rounds of Union artillery against Fort Sumter. President Davis states, “I did not believe Charleston would ever be taken.”

November 3–9, 1863

November 3, 1863 The ruins of Fort Sumter are pounded by another 661 rounds from Union guns, without effect.
November 3, 1863 Heavy skirmishing along the Bayou Borbeau, Louisiana results in an embarrassing and hasty Union retreat. Union General William B. Franklin’s XIX Corps encamps beyond the reach of mutual support and with lax security. Confederate General Richard Taylor outnumbered two to one, launches a sudden attack, including the cavalry under General Thomas Green emerging out of a ravine, scattering the Union camp. The Union loss is 25 dead, 129 wounded, and 562 captured.
November 3, 1863 Near Charleston, West Virginia, 1,700 Union cavalry move against Confederates at Lewisburg. Their goal is to destroy the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad.
November 3, 1863 Federal gunboats transport General Nathaniel P. Banks’ troops and land at Brazos Island, Texas. This is the first Union unit to establish a presence in Texas.
November 4, 1863 At Jefferson Davis’ direction, General Braxton Bragg sends General Longstreet with 15,000 men to support Knoxville. This move is partially to tie down Union troops at Knoxville but also to separate the two feuding Southern Generals. Bragg is seriously weakened at Chattanooga as General Grant prepares for an attack.
November 4, 1863 Generals Nathaniel Banks and Napoleon J. T. Dana occupy Brownsville, Texas.
November 5, 1863 General Grant urges General W. T. Sherman to hasten his move to Chattanooga so the Union forces can attack Bragg’s force before Longstreet can attack General Burnsides at Knoxville.
November 5, 1863 President Lincoln scolds General Nathaniel Banks for leaving Louisiana before he re-establishes a constitutional government thereby assuring the African Americans “on the question of their permanent freedom.”
November 6, 1863 President Davis continues his morale building tour visiting Wilmington, North Carolina. Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina is further reduced.
November 6, 1863 Captain Raphael Simmes’ crew, aboard the CSS Alabama, captures and burns the Union bark ’Amanda’ in the Dutch East Indies.
November 7, 1863 General George Meade surprises General R. E. Lee by installing two pontoon bridges across the Rappahannock River at Kelly’s Ford and Rappahannock Station. Three Union Corps cross and attack the 2nd and 30th North Carolina units of General Robert Rode’s division and establish a position on the south bank of the Rappahannock. Five miles upstream, General John Sedgwick’s V and VI Corps defeat the “Louisiana Tigers.” General Lee assumes no further fighting is planned and fails to guard the bridgehead. General Sedgwick leads the 6th Marines and the 5th Wisconsin in a bayonet charge against the “Louisiana Tigers,” driving the Confederates from the bridgehead with 2,023 casualties. Lee withdraws south to Culpepper Court House.
November 9, 1863 President Davis returns to Richmond from his morale-boosting trip. His train is delayed by an early snowstorm.
November 9, 1863 President Lincoln attends the play ’The Marble Heart’ featuring actor John Wilkes Booth at a theater in Washington, D.C.

November 10–16, 1863

November 10, 1863 The Signal Corps transfers all telegraph equipment to the Military Telegraph Service as directed by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton.
November 10, 1863 Admiral John Dahlgren reports that in the past two weeks his ironclad squadron has delivered 9,036 artillery rounds into Fort Sumter and still this does not prompt a Confederate surrender.
November 10, 1863 In the Straits of Sunda off Java, the CSS Alabama is successful in capturing and burning the Union clipper ship ’Winged Racer’ and the Union clipper ’Contest’ is captured and burned in the Gasper Straits the next day.
November 11, 1863 At Chattanooga, Confederate President Davis warned General Braxton Bragg to: “not allow the enemy to get up all his reinforcements before striking him, if it can be avoided.”
November 12, 1863 The weather and marching conditions continue to be a problem as Generals James Longstreet and Joseph Wheeler mass their respective commands at Loudon, Tennessee and begin to move toward Knoxville.
November 12, 1863 The Union batteries and ironclads continue to bombard Fort Sumter.
November 14, 1863 General Longstreet begins crossing the Tennessee River at Loudon. He directs General Wheeler to move his cavalry toward the Holston River southeast of Knoxville, which effectively takes his best fighting force out of the skirmishing and small engagements that erupt as they move toward Knoxville. Union General Ambrose Burnside supervises the evacuation of 5,000 Union troops from Louden and begins to move them to Knoxville.
November 15, 1863 General Wheeler arrives across the Holston River from the Knoxville heights. He decides that the Union force is too strong to attack and withdraws.
November 15, 1863 General Burnside and General Longstreet slog through the mud on parallel routes to Knoxville, sometimes within a mile of each other. Both are aware of the other force and the race is on. Both forces encamp at Lenoir for the night.
November 15, 1863 After a 675 mile trip by rail, boat, and road, General Sherman arrives at Bridgeport, Alabama with four divisions (17,000 men) destined as a relief force at Chattanooga. Sherman rides ahead, arrives in Chattanooga and begins a personal reconnaissance of the northern end of Missionary Ridge, near the right wing of Braxton Bragg’s Army of Tennessee.
November 16, 1863 Departing Lenoir, Tennessee in the early morning darkness, both armies dispatch mounted forces ahead of their infantry to capture Campbell’s Station, ten miles ahead. General Burnside, knowing the importance of gaining the Campbell’s Station crossroad, burns his baggage and supply wagons and arrives 15 minutes ahead of General Longstreet. Confederate Generals Evander M. Laws and Lafayette McLaws are dispatched to hit the Union right but Burnsides detects the move and falls back. When General Laws attacks the adjusted Union line, he is repulsed and beaten back. General Longstreet concedes Campbell’s Station but moves on toward Knoxville, planning to besiege the city.

November 17–23, 1863

November 17, 1863 The siege of Knoxville tightens as General James Longstreet begins to position his corps near the city.
November 18, 1863 President Lincoln boards a special train that takes him to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to dedicate the military cemetery there. The President is concerned over the illness of his son Tad.
November 18, 1863 Several of Major John S. Mosby’s Partisan Rangers are captured by Union troops between Vienna, Virginia and the Blue Ridge Mountains.
November 18, 1863 The Federal schooner “Joseph L. Garrity” is seized by passengers sympathetic to the Confederate cause. Taken to British Honduras, the schooner is converted into the blockade-runner “Eureka.”
November 19, 1863 The Gettysburg Address was presented to a crowd of about 15,000 people. The President’s remarks followed a two-hour speech by Edward Everett, a stirring orator. With only 272 words, the President summarized the ideals of the republic, a message that resonates today.
November 19, 1863 General Ambrose E. Burnside enters Knoxville and begins to fortify the city. General William P. Saunders leads his 700 cavalrymen in a defensive stand against General Longstreet’s Confederates for several hours before being killed. General Saunders is the highest-ranking Southern born officer in the Union Army to be killed. Burnside renames Fort Loudon, located in northwestern Knoxville, as Fort Saunders.
November 20, 1863 President Lincoln feels disappointment with his speech and tells Edward Everett: “I am pleased to know that, in your opinion, the little I did say was not entirely a failure.”
November 21, 1863 Major John Mosby loses more Partisan Rangers in a sweeping Union raid from Bealeton to Thoroughfare Gap, Virginia. Major Mosby’s Partisan Rangers are successful in the attack and capture of several Union wagons at Liberty, Virginia.
November 22, 1863 The Battle of Chattanooga begins with General Grant directing a preliminary move to improve the Union army’s position prior to an attack. General George Thomas parades his IV Corps along Orchard Knob, a long, low mound that is in full view of the Confederate force. With flags in proper order, two divisions march out and appear to be marching in review. Confederates in their rifle pits on Missionary Ridge relax and watch the parade. One hour after the first movement by the Union, bugles and drummers sound the charge and troops mount a charge, overrunning the Confederate rifle pit. Orchard Knob serves as the location of General Grant’s headquarters for the remainder of the campaign.

November 24–30, 1863

November 24, 1863 The Union forces continue to pour rounds into the ruins of Fort Sumter, Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. In the past week, more than 1,600 shots were fired.
November 24, 1863 Early this morning, General Joseph Hooker marched his three divisions to the base of Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga, Tennessee and they began to scale the 1,100 foot mountain. Their activity is shrouded by fog and the Confederate opposition is out-manned. General Carter L. Stephenson requests reinforcements but General Braxton Bragg fails to respond. Around 2:30 pm, Bragg orders a retreat and General Stephenson directs that bridges should be burned during the retreat. By 8:00 pm, Hooker reaches the Craven Farm, about halfway up the mountain and places a Federal flag at this point. The flag is first observed by Union leadership at daybreak the next morning when the fog is gone. The battle is forever known as the "Battle above the Clouds.”
November 24, 1863 General William T. Sherman moves his forces to what he thinks is the north end of Missionary Ridge in Chattanooga. Unaware that he is on a parallel ridge separated by a wide ravine, General Bragg is forewarned that an attack is coming.
November 25, 1863 Another 799 rounds pound Fort Sumter’s crumbling walls, with little effect.
November 25, 1863 General Ulysses S. Grant leads 64,000 men against General Bragg’s 46,000 Confederates while General Sherman, with 16,000 men, assaults the Confederate right anchored on Missionary Ridge. Sherman attacks piecemeal and makes little progress against General R. Patrick Cleburne’s division. This clash moved from Missionary Ridge toward Tunnel Hill where Cleburne, nearly out of ammunition, mounts a bayonet charge, scattering tired Union forces. General Grant generates diversions to prevent General Bragg from transferring reinforcements to the right. There is a pause in activity around midday. In the afternoon, General Hooker is ordered to attack Bragg’s left and rear by moving from Lookout Mountain to Rossville Gap. Hooker is delayed rebuilding a bridge over Chickamauga Creek so General Grant directs General George Thomas to demonstrate in front of Confederate rifle pit on Missionary Ridge, primarily to hold Bragg’s Confederates until the flank attack succeeds. General Thomas’ 20,000 troops, led by Generals Thomas Wood and Phillip Sheridan, raise cheers and ultimately overrun the lightly held rifle pits and stand victorious at the crest of the ridge. This “Miracle of Missionary Ridge” ruptures Bragg’s center and the stranglehold of Chattanooga ends.
November 25, 1863 General Grant is slated to receive promotion to lieutenant general. General Thomas and his troops feel somewhat vindicated for their humiliation in the loss at Chickamauga Creek two months earlier.
November 26, 1863 Generals William T. Sherman and George H. Thomas pursue the Confederate Army fleeing south through Rossville Gap.
November 26, 1863 General George Meade’s Army of the Potomac is on the move, crossing the Rapidan River with General William H. French commanding the lead element. French takes the wrong road causing enough delay for the Army of Northern Virginia to block the path. General Meade has lost the element of surprise and General R. E. Lee has time to prepare for the enemy’s attack.
November 27, 1863 General John H. Morgan and several of his officers stage a daring escape from the State Penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio. They have been in the penitentiary since they were captured at Salineville, Ohio on July 26th.
November 27, 1863 At Ringgold Gap, Georgia, Confederates led by General Patrick R. Cleburne mount an effective rear-guard action as the Army of Tennessee falls back to Dalton, Georgia. Holding off a Union force of at least twice his size, Cleburne’s force inflicts heavy losses on the Union and ample time for the Confederates to entrench at Dalton.
November 27, 1863 General William Sherman is ordered to provide relief to Knoxville, currently under siege. Sherman sends two divisions of the IV Corps commanded by General Gordon Granger.
November 28, 1863 General Lee holds a strong defensive position along Mine Run Creek suggesting that no Union attack by General Meade’s Army of the Potomac can succeed.
November 28, 1863 General Braxton Bragg, humiliated by his loss at Chattanooga and hated by his subordinates, submits his resignation to President Jefferson Davis.
November 28, 1863 General Sherman marches to the aid of General Ambrose E. Burnside at Knoxville. Parts of the Union XI, XIV, and XV Corps are involved.
November 28, 1863 General James Longstreet plans an attack on Fort Saunders in an attempt to capture Knoxville. Evening fog forces him to cancel the assault but Longstreet sends sharpshooters forward to cover the pending attack, alerting the firmly entrenched Union defenders.
November 29, 1863 President Lincoln, recently back from Gettysburg, recovers from a mild case of smallpox. His son Tad also recovered.
November 29, 1863 The Confederates attack Fort Saunders at 6:00 am in unusually cold weather. Without prior reconnaissance, the southern troops are surprised when they encounter telegraph wire strung at knee level from tree to tree, steep ditches filled with icy water surrounding the works, and the need for ladders. Longstreet’s siege of Knoxville ends. Longstreet plans his withdrawal upon receiving word of Bragg’s defeat at Chattanooga.
November 30, 1863 General Gouverneur K. Warren urges General George Meade to drop his planned attack on Confederates along Mine Run. Meade’s planned Mine Run Campaign never materializes.
November 30, 1863 President Davis grants General Braxton Bragg’s request to be relieved of command of the Army of Tennessee at Dalton, Georgia. General William J. Hardee is appointed temporary commander.

December 1–7, 1863

December 1, 1863 Southern spy Isabella “Belle” Boyd is released from the Federal Prison at Washington D.C. and is again warned to stay out of Union territory. She is suffering from typhoid fever leading to her early release.
December 1, 1863 General Meade’s Army of the Potomac crosses the Rapidan River officially ending the Mine Run campaign. The army enters winter quarters.
December 1, 1863 Near Mount Sterling, Kentucky, Confederate General Samuel Jones’ forces capture Union stores worth $700,000, 250 horses, and 100 prisoners without any loss of men.
December 2, 1863 General Robert E. Lee plans a strike on General Meade’s army but finds the position completely deserted. General Lee was later quoted as saying, "I am too old to command this army; we should never have permitted those people to get away.” General Lee was impressed with the strength of Meade’s entrenchments and plans to use this tool if he has the opportunity.
December 2, 1863 General Hardee succeeds General Braxton Bragg as commander of the Army of Tennessee in an emotional ceremony at Dalton, Georgia.
December 3, 1863 General James Longstreet quits Knoxville, Tennessee and moves into winter quarters at Greenville, Tennessee. Union General Ambrose Burnside fails to pursue Longstreet’s move. With Longstreet nearby, General Grant is forced to maintain a sizable Union force in Tennessee to monitor Longstreet’s expected moves, possibly to join General Lee in Virginia.
December 4, 1863 The bombardment of Fort Sumter continues with more than 1,300 rounds fired in the past seven days.
December 4, 1863 General Longstreet begins to withdraw 15,000 of his men toward Virginia, moving northeast of Knoxville. Cavalry General James M. Shackleford follows with 4,000 troops.
December 5, 1863 At Murrell’s Inlet, South Carolina, a boat crew from the USS Perry is captured while searching for blockade-runners.
December 6, 1863 General William T. Sherman and staff arrive at the command tent of General Burnside in Knoxville.
December 7, 1863 The fourth session of the 1st Confederate Congress meets in Richmond, Virginia and following the acknowledgement of failures of the previous year officially proclaims: "The patriotism of the people has proven equal to every sacrifice demanded by their country’s need.”
December 7, 1863 The 38th Congress convenes in Washington, D.C. for their first session. Secretary Gideon Welles makes his third annual report of Naval strength. He reports 34,000 seamen, 588 warships displacing 467,967 tons and carrying 4,443 guns. These vessels claim the capture or destruction of more than 1,000 foreign and Southern blockade-runners plus several land batteries and fortifications.
December 7, 1863 At New York, 15 Confederate sympathizers board the Union steamer “Chesapeake” scheduled to move to Portland. They take control of the Chesapeake and steam to Nova Scotia.

December 8–15, 1863

December 8, 1863 President Lincoln offers his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction in an opening address to the 38th Congress, in session in Washington. All Southerners in any of the seceded states can take a loyalty oath and, when fully 10% of the voters of that state have taken the oath and that state abolishes slavery that state’s sitting government can reorganize. Radical Republicans in the north find the offer too conciliatory.
December 8, 1863 General William W. Averell moves to Salem, Virginia to carry out a raid on the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad. General Eliakim P. Scammon’s cavalry rides from Charleston, West Virginia to Lewisburg in support.
December 9, 1863 Citing his slow reaction to orders during the Chattanooga Campaign, General Ambrose E. Burnside is replaced as commander of the Department of the Ohio by order of General Grant. The new commander is General John G. Foster. In the Confederate Army, General James Longstreet draws up charges against several members of his staff for slow reaction to his order to storm Fort Saunders at Knoxville.
December 11, 1863 At Fort Sumter, Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, a random Union shot hits the ammunition magazine which explodes killing 11 and wounding 41 Confederate soldiers. The defenders refuse to surrender.
December 12, 1863 Beginning on this date, many supplies sent by Sanitary Commissions and packages from families of men in Southern prisons are refused by Confederate authorities.
December 12, 1863 Charles City Court House, Virginia is the scene of a Union raid that captures 90 Southerners.
December 13, 1863 General Mosby’s Partisan Raiders attack a sleeping Union camp at Germantown, Virginia. They capture two soldiers and several horses.
December 13, 1863 A force of 4,000 Union cavalry occupies Bean’s Station, Tennessee while in pursuit of General James Longstreet’s force as they leave Knoxville. General James M. Shackleford continues to push his Union soldiers further from his supporting infantry. General Longstreet turns on his pursuers and attempts to destroy Shackleford’s force but fails. Later that night, Longstreet sends Generals William Martin and William Jones on circuitous routes to get behind General Shackleford’s small force.
December 14, 1863 Using artillery, General Longstreet tries to distract General Shackleford’s force while two columns strike their flank and rear. The Union troops make an orderly retreat through Bean’s Gap to Blain’s Crossroad and dig in behind a rail breastwork. Confederate forces decline to attack this strong position and withdraw. Bean’s Station is the last action of the dreary Knoxville campaign. Confederate losses are 182 dead, 768 wounded, and 142 missing (1,092). Union losses are 92 dead, 394 wounded, and 207 missing (693).
December 14, 1863 Emilie Todd Helm, Mrs. Lincoln’s half sister, is granted general amnesty when she visits the White House and takes the loyalty oath.
December 15, 1863 General Jubel A. Early is appointed commander of the Confederate Valley District, Virginia. General Early leads a sortie from Hanover Junction, Virginia to cut off General Averell at Millborough where he continues to destroy railroad assets.

December 15–21, 1863

December 15, 1863 General Jubel A. Early is appointed commander of the Confederate Valley District, Virginia. General Early leads a sortie from Hanover Junction, Virginia to cut off General Averell at Millborough where he continues to destroy railroad assets.
December 16, 1863 Union General John Buford dies of tuberculosis at Washington, D.C. at the age of 37.
December 16, 1863 General Averell’s cavalry column enters Salem, Virginia, occupies the town, destroys the depot and railroad bridges in the area.
December 17, 1863 President Lincoln releases plans for a Federal Bureau of Emancipation to assist freed slaves. Congress fails to enact legislation forming this bureau until March, 1865.
December 17, 1863 The steamer ’Chesapeake’, commandeered by Confederate sympathizers, is apprehended in Sambro Harbor, Nova Scotia and released back to its original owners.
December 18, 1863 General John M. Schofield is removed from duty in Missouri due to his poor handling of civilian affairs. President Lincoln simultaneously sacks the General and promotes him to major general to avoid and ugly conflict in Army leadership.
December 19, 1863 The USS Restless, Bloomer, and Caroline patrol off Florida near St. Andrews Bay. In 10 days of raids, they eliminate 290 Southern owned saltworks and 268 buildings.
December 20, 1863 The USS Sunflower, USS Fox, and USS Governor Buckingham capture Confederate blockade runners near Frying Pan Shoals, North Carolina, Tampa Bay and Suwannee River, Florida.
December 21, 1863 General Jacob D. Cox is appointed commander of the Department of Mississippi and Louisiana, replacing General Schofield.

December 22–28, 1863

December 22, 1863 Confederate General Leonidas K. Polk becomes commander of the Department of Mississippi and Louisiana.
December 23, 1863 Admiral David G. Farragut announced to Navy Secretary Gideon Wells that his flagship, the USS Hartford, is ready to depart. Admiral Farragut is eager to resume active duty but a shortage of crew members delayed his departure.
December 24, 1863 Union cavalry leader General William W. Averall concludes his third railroad and bridge raid of the year and returns to Beverly, West Virginia. Confederate General Samuel Jones was unable to intercept Averall’s smaller force and was ultimately dismissed as commander of the Western Department.
December 24, 1863 Captain Semmes is still active aboard the CSS Alabama, this time capturing and burning the Union bark ’Texan Star’ in the Straits of Malacca, Dutch West Indies.
December 25, 1863 Major John S. Mosby’s partisan raiders encounter a small Union force near Leesburg, Virginia and several raiders are captured.
December 25, 1863 In an unexpected bombardment, the USS Marblehead is hit by 20 rounds from Confederate batteries at Lagareville, South Carolina on the Stono River. Landing parties from the nearby USS Pawnee and USS C.P. Williams drive the Confederate raiders off.
December 26, 1863 In the Straits of Malacca, the CSS Alabama’s crew captures and burns the Union barks Sonora and Highlander.
December 27, 1863 President Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton visit Confederate prisoners at Point Lookout, Maryland as a goodwill gesture.
December 27, 1863 General Joseph E. Johnston arrives in Dalton, Georgia to take command of the battered Confederate Department of Tennessee, recently defeated at Chattanooga. General Johnston replaces General Bragg.
December 28, 1863 The Confederate Congress abolishes the practice of allowing hired substitutes to replace drafted men.

December 29, 1863 – January 4, 1864

December 29, 1863 General Winfield S. Hancock resumes his active participation in the war by returning to the Army of the Potomac as commander of the Union II Corps five months after suffering serious wounds at Gettysburg.
December 29, 1863 Armed boats from the USS Stars and Stripes burn the Confederate Blockade runner Caroline Gertrude near the mouth of the Ocklockonee River, Florida.
December 30, 1863 Two Confederate salt works are destroyed at St. Joseph Bay, Florida by crews from the USS Pursuit.
December 31, 1863 Navy Secretary Gideon Wells sums up the past year of war saying “The war has been waged with success, although there have been in some instances errors and misfortunes. But the heart of the nation is sounder and it’s hopes higher”.
December 31, 1863 President Davis appoints North Carolina senator George Davis as interim Confederate Attorney General replacing outgoing Wade Keyes.
January 1, 1864 Confederate General William “Extra Billy” Smith becomes governor of Virginia. General Smith fought at Gettysburg.
January 2, 1864 Suffering manpower shortages, Confederate General Patrick L. Cleburne and other officers petition for the use of African American in the Confederate Army. President Davis ignores the petition and denies a well deserved promotion for Cleburne (to Lieutenant General) because of it.
January 2, 1864 George Davis formally replaces Wade Keyes as Attorney General.
January 2, 1864 Union troops occupy Santa Catalina Island, off the coast of California. January 3,1284-General William E. Jones leads his Confederate Cavalry in a surprise attack on General Orlando Wilcox’ forces near Jonesville, Virginia. Union losses are 383 prisoners, 27 wagons, and 3 cannons.
January 3, 1864 General Fitzhugh Lee’s cavalry seizes a large supply train and 250 head of cattle in a raid on Union General Benjamin F. Kelly’s force moving in Hardy County, West Virginia.
January 4, 1864 President Davis instruct General Robert E. Lee to begin requisitioning food from civilians as necessary in support of Lee’s Army.

Civil War Timeline — 1863

Weeks in 1863

January 6–12, 1863

January 13–19, 1863

January 20–26, 1863

January 27 – February 2, 1863

February 3–9, 1863

February 10–16, 1863

February 24 – March 2, 1863

March 3–9, 1863

March 10–16, 1863

March 17–23, 1863

March 24–30, 1863

March 31 – April 6, 1863

April 7–13, 1863

April 14–20, 1863

April 21–27, 1863

April 28 – May 4, 1863

May 5–11, 1863

May 12–18, 1863

May 19–25, 1863

May 26 – June 1, 1863

May 26 – June 1, 1863

June 9–15, 1863

June 16–23, 1863

June 24–30, 1863

July 1–6, 1863

July 7–13, 1863

July 14–20, 1863

July 21–27, 1863

July 28 – August 3, 1863

August 4–10, 1863

August 11–17, 1863

August 18–24, 1863

August 25–31, 1863

September 1–7, 1863

September 8–14, 1863

September 15–21, 1863

September 22–28, 1863

September 29 – October 5, 1863

October 6–12, 1863

October 13–19, 1863

October 20–26, 1863

October 27 – November 2, 1863

November 3–9, 1863

November 10–16, 1863

November 17–23, 1863

November 24–30, 1863

December 1–7, 1863

December 8–15, 1863

December 15–21, 1863

December 22–28, 1863

December 29, 1863 – January 4, 1864