South Carolina
in
The War Between the States
Timeline

January 1862

Jan 31, 1862 - President Lincoln issues General War Order No. 1 calling for all United States naval and land forces to begin a general advance by Feb 22, George Washington's birthday.

February 1862

Feb 6, 1862 - Victory for Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in Tennessee, capturing Fort Henry, and ten days later Fort Donelson. Grant earns the nickname "Unconditional Surrender" Grant.

March 1862

The Peninsular Campaign (March-July 1862) begins as McClellan's Army of the Potomac advances from Washington down the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay to the peninsular south of the Confederate Capital of Richmond, Virginia then begins an advance toward Richmond.

President Lincoln temporarily relieves McClellan as general-in-chief and takes direct command of the Union Armies.

March 8-9, 1862 - Hampton Roads - Naval Battle of the Ironclads
The Confederate Ironclad C.S.S. Virginia, aka the 'Merrimack', sinks two wooden Union ships then battles the Union Ironclad 'Monitor' to a draw. Naval warfare is changed forever, making wooden ships obsolete.

April 1862 - Shiloh

April 6-7, 1862 - Shiloh (Tennessee)
Confederate surprise attack on Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's unprepared troops at Shiloh on the Tennessee River results in a bitter struggle with 13,000 Union killed and wounded and 10,000 Confederates, more men than in all previous American wars combined. The president is then pressured to relieve Grant but resists. "I can't spare this man; he fights," Lincoln says.

April 10-11, 1862 - General Quincy A. Gillmore battered Fort Pulaski, the imposing masonry structure near the mouth of the Savannah River, into submission in less than two days.

April 24, 1862 - 17 Union ships under the command of Flag Officer David Farragut move up the Mississippi River then take New Orleans, the South's greatest seaport. Later in the war, sailing through a Rebel mine field, Farragut utters the famous phrase "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!"

April-May - Yorktown Siege

May 1862
May 5, 1862 - Williamsburg (skirmish, Virginia)

May 31 - June 1, 1862 - Seven Pines / Fair Oaks (Virginia)
Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's Army attacks McClellan's troops in front of Richmond and nearly defeats them. But Johnston is badly wounded.

June 1862

June 1, 1862 - Gen. Robert E. Lee assumes command, replacing the wounded Johnston. Lee then renames his force the Army of Northern Virginia. McClellan is not impressed, saying Lee is "likely to be timid and irresolute in action."

June 16, 1862 - Secessionville / James Island (South Carolina)

June 25-July 1, 1862 - Seven Days Battles
Lee attacks McClellan near Richmond, resulting in very heavy losses for both armies. McClellan then begins a withdrawal back toward Washington.

June 26, 1862 - Mechanicsville
June 27, 1862 - Gaines' Mill (Virginia)
June 29, 1862 - Savage's Station (Virginia)

July 1862
July 1, 1862 - Malvern Hill (Virginia)
sixth, and last, of the Seven Days Battles.

Young Private Edwin F. Jemison, killed in the Seven Days Battles at Malvern Hill - the face of a lost generation.

August 1862 - Second Manassas
August 13 - Black River
August 23, 1862 - Rappahannock Station

August 28-30, 1862 - Second Battle of Manassas / Bull Run
75,000 Federals under Gen. John Pope are defeated by 55,000 Confederates under Gen. Stonewall Jackson and Gen. James Longstreet at the second battle of Manassas / Bull Run in northern Virginia. Once again the Union Army retreats to Washington. The president then relieves Pope.

September 1862 - Lee invades the North

Sept 4-9, 1862 - Lee invades the North with 50,000 Confederates and heads for Harpers Ferry, located 50 miles northwest of Washington. Harper's Ferry fell to Confederate General Jackson on September 15, along with a great number of men and a large body of supplies. The Union Army, 90,000 strong, under the command of McClellan, pursues Lee.

September 12-15, 1862 - Harper's Ferry (Western Virginia)
September 14 - South Mountain (Maryland)

September 17, 1862 - Antietam / Sharpsburg (Maryland)
The bloodiest day in U.S. military history as Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Armies are stopped at Antietam in Maryland by McClellan and numerically superior Union forces. By nightfall 26,000 men are dead, wounded, or missing. Lee then withdraws to Virginia.

Confederate dead by the fence bordering Farmer Miller's 40 acre Cornfield at Antietam where the intense rifle and artillery fire cut every corn stalk to the ground "as closely as could have been done with a knife."

Sept 22, 1862 - Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which would free all slaves in areas rebelling against the United States, effective January 1, 1863, issued by President Lincoln.

Nov 7, 1862 - The president replaces McClellan with Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside as the new Commander of the Army of the Potomac. Lincoln had grown impatient with McClellan's slowness to follow up on the success at Antietam, even telling him, "If you don't want to use the army, I should like to borrow it for a while."

December 1862

Dec 13, 1862 - Fredericksburg - Army of the Potomac under Gen. Burnside suffers a costly defeat at Fredericksburg in Virginia with a loss of 12,653 men after 14 frontal assaults on well entrenched Confederate troops on Marye's Heights. "We might as well have tried to take hell," a Union soldier remarks. Confederate losses are 5,309.

"It is well that war is so terrible - we should grow too fond of it," states Lee during the fighting.

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Last revised 1 Dec 2003.

These CSA pages online since December 11, 1996.

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