Civil War Timeline

1863

January 1 - President Lincoln's final Emancipation Proclamation is issued, freeing all slaves in
Confederate territories, and abolishing the practice of slavery; He makes a point of emphasizing the enlisting of African-American soldiers in the Union army.

January 25 - General Joseph Hooker is appointed by President Lincoln as the new commander of the Army of the Potomac.

January 29 - General Ulysses S. Grant is given command of the Army of the West, and ordered to take Vicksburg, Mississippi.

March 3 - A draft affecting all male citizens aged between 20 and 45 is issued to strengthen the Union forces. Poor families are outraged at the exemption of those able to afford a sum of $300 in lieu of service.

May 1-4 - General Hooker's Union Army is defeated by Lee's forces at the Battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia. Lee's innovative strategies are at the heart of his success, but it is still a small victory for the Confederates, as General Stonewall Jackson is fatally wounded by his own men. General Hooker later admits to losing his self-confidence during the battle. 17,000 Union soldiers and 13,000 Confederates die during the fight.

May 10 - General Stonewall Jackson dies as the result of his wounds. General Lee is now the only remaining threat to the Union forces.

June 3 - General Lee decides to try and once again invade the North, sending 75,000 Confederates towards Pennsylvania.

June 28 - George G. Meade is appointed as the new commander of the Army of the Potomac. Meade is the fifth man appointed to the post by President Lincoln in less than a year, replacing General Hooker.

July 1-3 - General Lee's Confederate soldiers are defeated at the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania.

July 4 - After a six week siege, Vicksburg, the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi, surrenders to General Ulysses S. Grant and the Army of the West. This is a significant victory for the Union forces, which are now in control of the Mississippi.

July 13-16 - Over 100 people die in the New York City anti-draft riots. Union forces on their way back from Gettysburg are called in to restore order.

July 18 - Fort Wagner is attacked by Colonel Robert G. Shaw and the "Negro troops" of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. Shaw and 600 of his men perish in the assault.

August 10 - President Lincoln meets abolitionist Frederick Douglass. The two discuss equal rights for the African-Americans of the Union "Negro Troops".

August 21 - Pro-Confederate William C. Quantrill and a mob of his followers raid the town of Lawrence, Kansas, and massacre nearly 200 boys and men.

September 19/20 - Confederate General Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee at Chickamauga traps General William S. Rosecrans' Union Army of the Cumberland in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

October 16 - General Grant is given command of all Western theater operations by President Lincoln.

November 19 - President Lincoln delivers a two minute Gettysburg Address during a ceremony in which the battlefield is designated as a National Cemetery.

November 23-25 - General Bragg's siege army, which has been holding General Rosecrans' Unions forces trapped in Chattanooga, is defeated by Grant's Union forces.

←1862-1864→

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