Today in the Civil War August 15
1861-General George McClellan assumes command of the Army of the Potomac.
1861-The Department of Kentucky and the Department of the Cumberland are combined under General Robert Anderson.
1862-Skirmish at Clarendon, Arkansas.
1864-Skirmish, near Charles Town, Jefferson County West Virginia.
1864-Skirmish, near Cedar Creek, Shenandoah County Virginia.
Today in the Civil War August 14
1861-Soldiers of the 79th New York mutiny near Washington, D.C.
1862-Under orders from Halleck, McClellan withdraws from the Peninsula of Virginia.
1862-Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith began his invasion of Kentucky. He moved his troops out of Knoxville, Tennessee, and toward Cumberland Gap. The plan was to draw Union troops away from Chattanooga, Tennessee.
1862-A temporary Union jail in Kansas City collapsed. Confederate guerrilla leader William 'Bloody Bill" Anderson's 14-year-old sister was killed and his other two sisters were injured. Pro-Confederate William C. Quantrill exacted revenge on Lawrence, Kansas on August 21. The band killed 150 residents and much of the town was burned.
1864-Second battle of Dalton Georgia.
1864-Union General Ulysses S. Grant's troops began attacking Confederate fortifications around Deep Bottom Run.
1864-Skirmish, near Strasburg, Shenandoah County Virginia.
1865-Mississippi conventions passes an ordinance voiding the secession ordinance of 1861.