1861 in the United States

Incumbents

Federal Government">Federal government of the United States">Federal Government

• President: James Buchanan , Abraham Lincoln
• Vice President: John C. Breckinridge , Hannibal Hamlin
• Chief Justice: Roger B. Taney
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: William Pennington , Galusha A. Grow
• Congress: 36th, 37th

  Governors

Lieutenant Governors

Events

January–March

• January 3 - American Civil War: Delaware votes not to secede from the Union.
• January 9 - Mississippi becomes the second state to secede from the Union, preceding the American Civil War.
• January 10 - American Civil War: Florida secedes from the Union.
• January 11 - American Civil War: Alabama secedes from the Union.
• January 12 - Major Robert Anderson sends dispatches to Washington.
• January 12 - American Civil War: Florida state troops demand surrender of Fort Pickens.
• January 18 - American Civil War: Georgia secedes from the Union.
• January 21 - American Civil War: Jefferson Davis resigns from the United States Senate. Ordinance of Secession is ratified.
• January 26 - American Civil War: Louisiana secedes from the Union.
• January 29 - Kansas is admitted as the 34th U.S. state.
• February 1 - American Civil War: Texas secedes from the Union.
• February 4 - American Civil War: Delegates from six seceded states meet at the Montgomery Convention in Montgomery, Alabama.
• February 8 - American Civil War: The Confederate States of America adopts the Provisional Confederate States Constitution.
• February 9 - American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is elected the Provisional President of the Confederate States of America by the Weed Convention at Montgomery, Alabama.
• February 11 - American Civil War: The U.S. House unanimously passes a resolution guaranteeing non-interference with slavery in any state.
• February 18 - American Civil War: In Montgomery, Alabama, Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the provisional president of the Confederate States of America.
• February 23 - President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington, D.C. after an assassination attempt in Baltimore.
• February 28 - Colorado Territory is organized.
• March 2 - Nevada Territory and Dakota Territory are organized.
• March 4
• *Abraham Lincoln is sworn in as the 16th President of the United States.
• *American Civil War: The Stars and Bars is adopted as the flag of the Confederate States of America.
• March 11 - American Civil War: The Confederate States Constitution is adopted.

  April–June

• April 12 - Battle of Fort Sumter: The American Civil War begins at Fort Sumter, South Carolina.
• April 14 - Battle of Fort Sumter: Fort Sumter surrenders to Confederate forces.
• April 17 - The state of Virginia secedes from the Union.
• April 20 - American Civil War: Robert E. Lee resigns his commission in the United States Army in order to command the forces of the state of Virginia.
• April 25 - American Civil War: The Union Army arrives in Washington, D.C.
• April 27 - American Civil War:
• *President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus in Maryland.
• May 6 - American Civil War: Arkansas secedes from the Union.
• May 7 - American Civil War: Tennessee secedes from the Union.
• May 8 - American Civil War: Richmond, Virginia is named the capital of the Confederate States of America.
• May 10 - American Civil War - Camp Jackson Affair: Union military forces clash with civilians on the streets of St. Louis, Missouri, resulting in the deaths of at least 28 people and injuries to another 100.
• May 13 - American Civil War: Queen Victoria issues a "proclamation of neutrality" which recognizes the breakaway states as having belligerent rights.
• May 20
• *American Civil War: Kentucky proclaims its neutrality which lasts until September 3, when Confederate forces enter the state.
• *American Civil War: North Carolina secedes from the Union.

  July–September

• July 13 - American Civil War: The Battle of Corrick's Ford takes place in western Virginia.
• July 21 - American Civil War - First Battle of Bull Run aka First Manassas: At Manassas Junction, Virginia, the first major battle of the war ends in a Confederate victory.
• July 22 - American Civil War: After Union forces led by Nathaniel Lyon capture the Missouri state capital of Jefferson City, the Missouri Constitutional Convention reconvenes and removes pro-secessionist Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson from office, replacing him with a pro-Union governor.
• July 25 - American Civil War: The Crittenden–Johnson Resolution is passed by the U.S. Congress, stating that the war is being fought to preserve the Union and not to end slavery.
• July 26 - American Civil War: George B. McClellan assumes command of the Army of the Potomac following a disastrous Union defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run.
• August 5
• *American Civil War: In order to help pay for the war effort, the United States government issues the first income tax as part of the Revenue Act of 1861.
• *The U.S. Army abolishes flogging.
• August 10 - American Civil War: The first major battle west of the Mississippi River, the Battle of Wilson's Creek, is fought, with a Confederate victory.
• September 3 - American Civil War: Confederate General Leonidas Polk invades neutral Kentucky, prompting the state legislature to ask for Union assistance.
• September 6 - American Civil War: Forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant bloodlessly capture Paducah, Kentucky, which gives the Union control the mouth of the Tennessee River.

  October–December

• October 9 - American Civil War - Battle of Santa Rosa Island: Confederate forces are defeated in their effort to take the island.
• October 21 - American Civil War - Battle of Ball's Bluff: Union forces under Colonel Edward Baker are defeated by Confederate troops in the second major battle of the war. Baker, a close friend of Abraham Lincoln, is killed in the fighting.
• October 28 - A small pro-secessionist section of the Missouri legislature takes up a bill for Missouri's secession from the Union.
• October 30 - The bill is passed for Missouri's secession from the Union.
• October 31
• *Missouri's secession from the Union bill is signed by Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson, but by this date Governor Jackson only controls parts of South-Western Missouri. Union forces led by general John C. Fremont have consolidated control over the vast majority of Missouri.
• *American Civil War: Citing failing health, Union General Winfield Scott resigns as Commander of the United States Army.
• November 1 - American Civil War: U.S. President Abraham Lincoln appoints George B. McClellan as commander of the Union Army, replacing the aged General Winfield Scott.
• November 2 - American Civil War: Western Department Union General John C. Frémont is relieved of command and replaced by David Hunter.
• November 6 - American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is elected president of the Confederate States of America.
• November 7 - American Civil War - Battle of Belmont: In Mississippi County, Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant overrun a Confederate camp but are forced to retreat when Confederate reinforcements arrive.
• November 8 - American Civil War - Trent Affair: The USS San Jacinto stops the United Kingdom mail ship Trent and arrests two Confederate envoys, James Mason and John Slidell, sparking a diplomatic crisis between the U.K. and U.S.
• November 21 - American Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis appoints Judah Benjamin Secretary of War.
• November 28 - American Civil War: Acting on the ordinance passed by the Jackson government, the Confederate Congress admits Missouri as the 12th Confederate state.
• December 10 - American Civil War: Kentucky is accepted into the Confederate States of America.

  Ongoing

• :Category:Secession crisis of 1860–61|Secession crisis
• American Civil War

  Births

• January 7 - Louise Imogen Guiney, poet
• January 12 - James Mark Baldwin, philosopher and psychologist
• January 26 - Frank O. Lowden, 25th Governor of Illinois from 1917 and U.S. Representative from Illinois from 1906 to 1911
• January 29 - William M. Butler, U.S. Senator from Massachusetts from 1892 to 1895
• February 26 - Godfrey Lowell Cabot, industrialist and philanthropist
• March 1 - Henry Harland, novelist and editor
• March 15 - Joseph M. Devine, 6th Governor of North Dakota from 1898 to 1899
• March 20 - Wilds P. Richardson, U.S. Army officer
• April 17 - Willard Saulsbury, Jr., U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1913 to 1919
• April 19 - John Grier Hibben, minister, philosopher and educator
• April 20 - James D. Phelan, U.S. Senator from California from 1915 to 1921
• April 27 - William Lorimer, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1909 to 1912
• May 16 - Herman Webster Mudgett, alias H. H. Holmes, serial killer
• May 20 - Henry Gantt, project engineer
• June 2 - Helen Herron Taft, First Lady of the U.S. as wife of 27th President William Howard Taft
• June 6 - Joseph M. Terrell, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1910 to 1911
• June 29 - William James Mayo, physician, medic, co-founder of Mayo Clinic
• July 7 - Nettie Stevens, geneticist
• July 9 - James M. Beck, politician
• July 11 - George W. Norris, U.S. Senator from Nebraska from 1913 till 1943
• July 22
• * Joseph L. Bristow, U.S. Senator from Kansas from 1909 to 1915
• * James Speyer, banker
• July 26 - James K. Vardaman, politician
• August 3 - Samuel M. Shortridge, U.S. Senator from California from 1921 till 1933
• August 4 - Jesse W. Reno, inventor, builder of the first working escalator
• August 6 - Edith Roosevelt, née Carow, First Lady of the U.S.
• August 9
• * L. B. Hanna, 11th Governor of North Dakota from 1913 till 1917
• * Dorothea Klumpke, astronomer
• August 20 - Anna Shelton, businesswoman
• September 20 - Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress
• September 21 - L. Heisler Ball, U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1919 to 1925
• September 30 - William Wrigley, Jr., chewing gum industrialist
• October 4 - Frederic Remington, painter, illustrator, sculptor and writer
• October 19 - William J. Burns, detective and director of Bureau of Investigation
• November 2 - Charles W. Waterman, U.S. Senator from Colorado from 1927 to 1932
• November 6
• * Thomas Watt Gregory, U.S. Attorney General
• * James Naismith, Canadian-born inventor of basketball
• November 14 - Frederick Jackson Turner, historian
• November 26 - Albert B. Fall, U.S. Senator from New Mexico from 1912 to 1921 and Secretary of the Interior from 1921 to 1923 under President Warren G. Harding
• December 8 - William C. Durant, businessman

  Deaths

• April 4 - John McLean, U.S. Postmaster General from 1823 to 1829, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court from 1829 to 1861
• April 8 - Elisha Otis, industrialist, founder of the Otis Elevator Company
• April 15 - Isaiah Stillman, U.S. Army Major in the Black Hawk War
• May 21 - Benjamin Paul Akers, sculptor
• May 24 - Elmer E. Ellsworth, first Union officer to die in the Civil War
• June 3 - Stephen A. Douglas, Senator from Illinois from 1847 till 1861 and Presidential candidate
• June 5 - John Garland, Bvt. Brigadier General in the Union Army
• June 13 - Richard Lawrence, failed assassin of Andrew Jackson
• July 7 - John Willis Ellis, 35th Governor of North Carolina from 1859 to 1861
• July 13 - Robert S. Garnett, Confederate brigadier general
• July 22 - Barnard Elliott Bee, Jr., Confederate general
• August 10 - Nathaniel Lyon, Union Army brigadier general, first general to be killed in the Civil War
• August 12 - Eliphalet Remington, gunmaker
• August 17 - Alcée Louis la Branche, politician
• October 5 - Kinsley S. Bingham, U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1859 to 1861
• October 20 - William Woodbridge, Governor of Michigan from 1840 to 1841 and U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1841 to 1847
• October 21 - Edward Dickinson Baker, U.S. Senator from Oregon from 1860 to 1861
• October 26 - Edward "Ned" Kendall, bandleader and instrumentalist
• November 28 - Richard M. Young, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1837 to 1843