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First a Few Events from 1860

November 6, 1860 - Abraham Lincoln elected President of the United States

December 20, 1860 - South Carolina becomee the first state to secede from the Union

Major Events of 1861


1861 was a busy year. Here you can learn about notable events and achievements that occurred in Texas, the United and Confederate States of America and throughout the rest of the World during that year.

Click on the state flags to visit their websites.

January 9 - Mississippi is the second state to secede from the Union

January 10 - Florida secedes

January 11 - Alabama secedes

January 19 - Georgia secedes

  January 26 - Louisiana secedes 

January 28 - The Texas Legislature meets in Austin to vote on adopting the Ordinance of Secession. The Ordinance was adopted with a vote of 166 to 8. A popular referendum was called for February 23rd and if endorsed by the voters the Ordinance would go into effect on March 2nd.
 

January 29 - Kansas becomes the 34th state

February 15 - U.S. Major General David E. Twiggs surrendered his 2,700 Union troops in San Antonio
 

February 18  - Jefferson Davis is inaugurated President of the Confederate States of America

February 18 - A united Kingdom of Italy is proclaimed, joining Lombardy, Piedmont, Parma, Modena, Lucca, Romagna, Tuscany, and the two Sicilies. (Rome will not be part of the country until 1870.) The unification of Italy is the culmination of the 'risorgimento', a cultural and political movement that supported the creation of a single Italian nation.

February 19 - Czar Alexander II of Russia emancipates the serfs

February 23 - Texas votes to adopt Ordinance of Secession. Numbers vary but there were 44,000 to 46,000 votes to secede and 13,000 to 14,000 votes to remain in the Union.
 

February 28 - The territory of Colorado was created.

March 2 -With an eye to history Texas formally secedes on the 25th anniversary of its declaration of independence from Mexico. Texas had only been in the union for 15 years.

March 2 - The territory of Nevada was created.

March 4 - Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated President of the United States of America

April 12 - 4:30 am the bombardment of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor begins

April 13 - 34 hours later Fort Sumter surrenders.

April 15 - Lincoln calls for the States to provide 75,000 troops to help preserve the Union

April 16 - John Bell Hood resigns from the Union Army and four days later was commissioned First Lieutenant in the Confederate cavalry. In September 1861 he was promoted to Colonel and given command of the Fourth Texas Regiment, Army Northern Virginia . This regiment became the core of Hood's Brigade which was known as one of the "fightingest" units of the war.

April 17 - Virginia secedes 

April 19 - Baltimore Riot - The Sixth Massachusetts is attacked as they march from one railhead to the other

April 19 - Lincoln orders a naval blockade of all southern ports.

May 6 - Arkansas secedes 

May 20 - North Carolina secedes

May 30 -
Albert Sydney Johnston was commissioned a General in the Army of the Confederate States of America and later placed in charge of the Western Department of the Army.

Both John Bell Hood and Johnston were born in Kentucky but during years of military service in Texas came to call it home.

June 8 - Tennessee is the eleventh and last state to secede from the Union. 

July - The book "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens was published.

July - The Union Warship South Carolina appears off the coast of Texas to enforce the blockade.

July 21 - The First Battle of Manassas or the The First Battle of Bull Run . The first major engagement of the Civil War was fought in Virginia. The battle was a Confederate Victory resulting in 4,700 killed, wounded or missing soldiers.

August - The oldest know example of a bird, 150 million years old - Archaeopteryx was discovered in Germany.

September 9 - The 8th Cavalry - the renowned Terry's Texas Rangers were mustered into the Confederate Army.

October 22 - Advance units of the newly formed Brigade of General H. H. Sibley marched westward from San Antonio to claim New Mexico and the American southwest for the Confederacy.

October 24 -
residents of thirty-nine counties in western Virginia approved the formation of a new Unionist state.  The state of West Virginia was formally admitted to the Union June 20, 1863 as its 25th state.

October 24 - Western Union completed the first transcontinental telegraph line.

December 6 - William Howell Davis, son of Jefferson and Varina Davis is born in the Confederate White House in Richmond Virginia.

December 14 - Prince Albert of England, husband of Queen Victoria dies.