Photographer George Washington Armstead made this image of Confederate troops killed during the fighting for Battery Robinett at Corinth, Mississippi, on this day in 1862. The defeated Confederates suffered approximately 4,200 casualties during the two-day fight. Union forces lost about 2,500 killed, wounded, and captured.
The Second Battle of Corinth—a Union victory—concluded on this day in 1862. Confederate forces suffered heavy losses in their assaults on the Union defenses that ringed the city, especially Battery Robinett, where the fighting was hand-to-hand.
Union general William "Bull" Nelson was shot and killed in Louisville's Galt House Hotel on this day in 1862 by fellow general Jefferson C. Davis, who was enraged after being publicly insulted by Nelson, his commanding officer. Within two weeks, Davis returned to duty unpunished.
"I made a solemn vow before God, that if General Lee was driven back from Pennsylvania, I would crown the result by the declaration of freedom to the slaves." Abraham Lincoln reportedly spoke these words to his Cabinet on this day in 1862—5 days after the Battle of Antietam—when issuing the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which declared all slaves in states still in rebellion on January 1, 1863, would be free.
President Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus in the U.S. on this day in 1863. Using the authority granted him by Congress earlier in the year, his order allowed the Union military to detain individuals deemed disloyal (spies, prisoners, deserters, draft resisters, etc.) without immediate trial.
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was born on this day in 1828. A professor at Bowdoin College when the war began, he led the 20th Maine at Gettysburg, his actions there earning him the Medal of Honor. He survived a severe wound at Petersburg in 1864 and ended the war a brevet major general.
Confederate cavalry general John Hunt Morgan—the "Thunderbolt of the Confederacy"—was killed in Greeneville, TN, on this day in 1864. Union cavalry had entered the town and surprised Morgan, who was shot while fleeing the house in which he had spent the night.
Union generals Phil Kearny and Isaac Stevens (depicted here) were killed on this day in 1862 at the Battle of Chantilly while leading their men against Confederates under "Stonewall" Jackson, who were attempting to cut off the retreating Union army after its defeat the previous day at Second Bull Run.
Ulysses S. Grant was appointed to the rank of brigadier general on this day in 1861; the Senate confirmed the appointment days later. Grant, then 39, began the war as colonel of the 21st Illinois Infantry and would end it as lieutenant general and commander of all Union armies. He's shown here wearing his brigadier general's uniform in a photo from October 1861.
The Battle of Ezra Church was fought on this day in 1864 as John Bell Hood's Confederates moved to thwart William T. Sherman's efforts to reach and destroy the Macon & Western line that led into Atlanta. While successful, Hood's men suffered heavy losses in the tactical defeat.
Former commanding general of the Union army and U.S. president Ulysses S. Grant, 63, died on this day in 1885. He worked intensely on his memoirs in his final months in hopes of providing financial support to his family. The photo here shows Grant four days before his death.
Union troops, headed by the African-American 54th Massachusetts, attacked Fort Wagner, SC, on this day in 1863. While the assault failed, the men of the 54th were subsequently praised for their valor. Shown here: Sgt. William Carney of the 54h, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions that day. Carney had picked up the regiment's U.S. flag after the color bearer was killed and carried it safely back to Union lines despite having been wounded several times.
On this day in 1864, Confederate president Jefferson Davis replaced Joseph E. Johnston (left) with John Bell Hood (right) as commander of the Army of Tennessee. Frustrated by Johnston's continuous retreats toward Atlanta against William T. Sherman’s forces, Davis thought the more offensive-minded Hood might more effectively blunt the Union advance. In South Carolina, diarist Mary Boykin Chesnut met the news with mixed emotions. While acknowledging that Johnston could be “cautious to a fault in manipulating an army” and that Hood had “all the dash and fire of a reckless young soldier, and his Texans would follow him to death,” she correctly feared Hood’s aggressiveness might backfire. “Too much caution might be followed easily by too much headlong rush,” she wrote. “That is where the swing-back of the pendulum might ruin us.” Forty-seven days later, Sherman’s men entered Atlanta, victorious.
Convicted Lincoln assassination conspirators Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold, and George Atzerodt were hanged at the Old Arsenal Penitentiary on this day in 1865. The reported last words of Surratt—the first woman executed by the U.S. government—were "Please don't let me fall."
Confederate infantry advanced upon the center of the Union line at Gettysburg on this day in 1863. Known to history as Pickett’s Charge, the Rebel attack proceeded over nearly a mile of open ground before reaching its objective—and being repulsed. Shown here: This Edwin Forbes painting shows the charge from the Union perspective; Confederates are depicted breaching the Union line at the copse of trees, pictured at center-left.
This Alfred Waud sketch shows the attack of the Louisiana Tigers against elements of the Army of the Potomac's XI Corps on East Cemetery Hill on the evening of July 2, 1863—163 years ago today. High casualties marked the fighting, which was hand-to-hand in places.
The Battle of Gaines' Mill—the third of the so-called Seven Days Battles—was fought on this day in 1862. The Confederate victory convinced George McClellan to abandon his campaign to take Richmond and pull his Army of the Potomac back to the James River.
Abner Doubleday was born on this day in 1819. The West Point grad was among the defenders of Fort Sumter when it was bombarded in 1861 and rose to the rank of major general by war's end. The claim that he invented the game of baseball—made years after his death—has been debunked.
Winfield Scott—the influential army commander known as "Old Fuss and Feathers"—was born in Virginia on this day in 1786. As general-in-chief of the U.S. Army in 1861, he formulated the Anaconda Plan, which called for a blockade of southern ports and control of the Mississippi River.