The Massachusetts Historical Society is recognizing the 150th anniversary of the Civil War with online presentations of manuscripts selected from its collections, lectures by noted Civil War scholars, and exhibitions in our second floor gallery space.
Timeline of Civil War Events and Selected Documents from MHS's Collection
1861
5 January -- John A. Andrew inaugurated as governor of Massachusetts
8 January -- Governor Andrew organizes a 100 gun salute on Boston Common to commemorate the Battle of New Orleans (1815) and awaken patriotic spirit in the residents of Massachusetts
9 January -- Mississippi secedes; Star of the West is turned back by Southern fire while attempting to bring supplies and reinforcements to Fort Sumter
10 January -- Florida secedes
11 January -- Alabama secedes
16 January -- Governor Andrew issues General Order No. 4 calling for the reorganization of the state militia so that it is ready to serve when called
18 January -- Massachusetts is first state to offer men and money to maintain the authority of the federal government
19 January -- Georgia secedes; Virginia proposes a peace conference to discuss the current crisis
21 January -- Jefferson Davis and four other southern senators leave Washington
26 January -- Louisiana secedes
1 February -- Texas adopts an Ordinance of Secession
4 February -- The peace conference, proposed by Virginia, convenes at the Willard Hotel in Washington
8 February -- The Confederate States of America forms in Montgomery, Alabama by convention of delegates from the seceded states
9 February -- Jefferson Davis elected President of the Confederate States for a term of six years
12 February -- Senator John J. Crittenden of Kentucky presents to the Senate a petition signed by 22,000 Massachusetts residents supporting compromise to preserve the Union
27 February -- The peace conference adjourns after submitting a proposal to Congress
2 March -- Texas admitted into the Confederate States of America
4 March -- President Lincoln inaugurated as the sixteenth President of the United States
11 March -- President Lincoln and his Cabinet decide to withdraw troops from Fort Sumter
13 March -- Lt. Gustavus Vasa Fox of Massachusetts meets with President Lincoln to discuss his plan for reprovisioning Fort Sumter
16 March -- President Lincoln commissions Robert E. Lee as Colonel in the 1st U.S. Cavalry
20 March -- President Lincoln appoints Massachusetts congressman Charles Francis Adams as Minister to Great Britain
29 March -- President Lincoln and his Cabinet reverse their decision to withdraw from Fort Sumter and President Lincoln orders a mission to reprovision the fort
12 April -- Fort Sumter fired upon by Confederate forces under the command of P.G.T. Beauregard while federal government attempts to provision the fort
13 April -- Major Robert Anderson surrenders Fort Sumter
15 April -- President Lincoln issues a call for 75,000 volunteers to serve a term of three months in defense of the Union
17 April -- Virginia committee votes for secession
19 April -- The Massachusetts Sixth Volunteer Infantry is attacked by a mob of Southern sympathizers in Baltimore while enroute to Washington; four soldiers and twelve civilians are killed
20 April -- Robert E. Lee tenders his resignation to the United States War Department
25 April -- More than 2000 militiamen from multiple states (including New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts) arrive in Washington to defend the capital
29 April-- Maryland House of Delegates votes against secession
1 May -- The four Massachusetts soldiers killed in Baltimore on April 19 are honored in Boston
3 May -- President Lincoln calls for additional 42,000 volunteers for three years of service
5 May -- General Benjamin Butler secures B&O railroad line running between Baltimore & Washington
6 May-- Tennessee and Arkansas pass secession ordinances; Great Britain recognizes the Confederate States of America as a belligerent, but not as a nation
8 May -- Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles appoints Gustavas Vasa Fox chief clerk of the Navy
9 May-- US Naval Academy & USS Constitution arrive at new home in Newport, RI
20 May-- North Carolina secedes
24 May -- Federal troops capture Alexandria, Virginia; Col. Elmer Ellsworth of the 11th New York Volunteer Infantry is killed
26 May -- Dorothea Dix is authorized to begin establishing military hospitals
1 June -- Skirmish at Fairfax Court House, Virginia
3 June-- The "Philippi Races" is a minor actions, but victory for the Union side
8 June -- Tennessee secedes
10 June -- Battle at Big Bethel, Virginia leaves 1 Confederate and 18 Union soliders dead
11 - 25 June -- The second Wheeling Convention meets in Wheeling, Virginia, nullifying seccession, establishing a 'restored' government, and laying the groundwork for the creation of West Virginia
17 June -- Use of communication by telegraph from balloon successfully tested in Washington
18 June -- President Lincoln signs legislation authorizing formation of the United States Sanitary Commission
27 June-- General Nathaniel Banks arrests Baltitmore chief of police for being a southern sympathizer
1 July -- The War Department authorizes raising of Union troops in Kentucky and Tennessee
4 July -- Independence Day is celebrated in both the North and South
13 July -- Confederate General Robert Selden Garnett is killed at Corrick's Ford in northern Virginia; he is the first general killed in action
16 July -- General McDowell and over 30,000 Union troops depart camp at Alexandria, VA marching toward Manassas
21 July -- The Union and Confederate armies meet on the battlefield in Manassas resulting in a loss and an embarrassing retreat for the Union army
22 July -- The Crittenden-Johnson Resolution, stating the war is being waged to "defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution and to preserve the Union," passes the House of Representatives
25 July -- General John C. Fremont assumes command of the Western Department in St. Louis, Missouri
27 July -- General George B. McClellan takes command of the Army of the Potomac
5 August -- Congress authorizes President Lincoln to enlist seamen in the federal Navy for the duration of the war
6 August -- President Lincoln signs the Confiscation Act allowing Union troope to free slaves used by the Confederates “in arms or labor” against the United States
8 August -- The Confederate government recognizes the states of Maryland, Delaware, Missouri, and Kentucky and authorizes the raising of troops in those states
10 August -- The Battle at Wilson’s Creek, the first battle in the western theater, is fought
16 August -- President Lincoln declares the Confederate states in a state of rebellion and forbids all commerce with them
19 August -- A Haverhill, MA newspaper publisher is tarred and feathered for his rumored southern sympathies
21 August -- Captain George Dwight is replaced as commandant of the Springfield Armory; under his guidance the armory had reached a production rate of 200 arms a day to supply the Union army
24 August -- President Jefferson Davis sends ambassadors to England, France, and Spain to gain recognition of the Confederacy
28 August -- Fort Hatteras, South Carolina, an important Confederate Port, surrenders to Union troops
30 August -- In Missouri, General John C. Fremont issues a proclamation calling for confiscation of all property and emancipating all slaves held by Missourians supporting the Confederate cause
3 September -- Confederate troops enter Kentucky ending the state’s neutrality in the conflict
6 September -- General Ulysses S. Grant lands federal troops at Paducah, Kentucky, capturing the city and gaining control of the mouth of the Tennessee River
11 September -- President Lincoln revokes General Frémont's unauthorized proclamation of emancipation in Missouri
12 September -- The Federal government orders the arrest of pro-Confederate members of Maryland's state legislature, scheduled to meet in Frederick on 17 September; Prisoners are sent to Fort Warren in Boston Harbor
17 September -- The Union Navy takes possession of Ship Island, Mississippi with a landing party from the USS Massachusetts.
20 September -- Colonel James A. Mulligan surrenders the Union garrison at Lexington, Missouri to General Sterling Price, ending an 8 day siege; General Fremont is criticized for lack of action relieving the garrison
October 1-- Secretary Welles refuses to issue letters of marque which would allow privateering against Confederate ships because doing so would recognize the Confederates as “a distinct and independent nationality”
October 3 -- Louisiana’s governor bans shipments of cotton to New Orleans partially in hopes of encouraging Britain and France to recognize the Confederacy
October 8 -- General William T. Sherman replaces General Robert Anderson as commander of the Union Department of the Cumberland after Anderson suffers a breakdown
October 12 -- The first Federal ironclad, the USS St. Louis, is launched at Carondelet, Missouri
October 21 --At the Battle of Ball’s Bluff, Union forces suffer over 900 casualties while the Confederacy suffers less than 160 casualties.
October 24 -- President Lincoln orders John C. Frémont be relieved of command of the Department of the West
October 28 -- Confederate general Albert Sydney Johnston assumes command of the Army of Central Kentucky at Bowling Green
November 1 --General George McClellan becomes General-in-Chief of the Union Army
November 3 -- General David Hunter assumes command of the Department the West, formally relieving General John C. Fremont of his command
November 7 -- A Union naval force commanded by Flag Officer Du Pont enters Port Royal Sound, South Carolina, and defeats Confederate forces at Forts Walker and Beauregard
November 8 --Confederate ambassadors James Mason and John Slidell are taken off of the British mail packet Trent by the USS San Jacinto in the Bahamas Straits
November 9 -- General Henry W. Halleck is assigned command of the newly formed Department of the Missouri, which absorbed the Department of the West
November 11 -- Professor Thaddeus Lowe makes history raising an observation balloon from the deck of specially fitted balloon boat, the G.W. Parke Custis
November 23--The San Jacinto docks in Boston Harbor; James Mason and John Slidell are removed to Fort Warren on George’s Island
November 27 – The Trent arrives in Southampton, England, bringing news of Mason and Slidell’s removal from the ship
November 30 – Lord Russell, British Foreign Secretary, informs Lord Lyons, Minister to the United States, that the removal of Mason and Slidell constitutes an aggressive act and that Britain demands their release, reparations, and an apology from the United States government