Browse all Events, Entries, Images, Videos, and Audio Files in the Civil War 1861 Time Period.
Thomas Ward Custer
March 15, 1845 – June 25, 1876 Younger brother of General George Armstrong Custer, Thomas Ward Custer was twice awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for gallantry during the Civil War. Thomas Ward Custer was born on March 15, 1845, at New Rumley, in eastern Ohio. He was the third of four sons of Emanuel…
Tribe of Dan
During the American Civil War many family members fought alongside one another, and it is believed that at least fifteen members of the McCook family of Ohio fought in the war. Daniel McCook, eight of his sons, his brother John McCook, and his five sons fought for the Union. During the American Civil War many…
U.S.S. Michigan
Built at Erie, Pennsylvania and commissioned in 1843, the U.S.S. Michigan spent its entire career patrolling the Great Lakes. For most of its term of service, it was the only iron-hulled ship patrolling the Great Lakes in the United States Navy. Built at Erie, Pennsylvania and commissioned in 1843, the U.S.S. Michigan spent its entire…
Union Medicine
1861–1865 During the American Civil War, the Union had the equivalent of 1,556,678 three-year enlistments, compared with roughly 1,083,000 for the Confederacy. Over 620,000 men perished, a figure that tops the total fatalities of all other wars in which Americans have fought. During the war, the average soldier could expect to become sick 5 or…
Wade Hampton III
March 28, 1818 – April 11, 1902 A prominent Confederate cavalry officer, Wade Hampton III also served as governor of South Carolina and as a United States Senator from the Palmetto State after the American Civil War. Wade Hampton III was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on March 28, 1818. He was the first of…
Washington Peace Conference
1861 Proposed by Virginia and chaired by former U.S. President John Tyler, the Washington Peace Conference was an unsuccessful eleventh-hour attempt to save the Union and avoid the American Civil War. On November 6, 1860, American voters elected Republican Abraham Lincoln as the sixteenth President of the United States. Alarmed by what they considered to…
Western Virginia Campaign
June–October, 1861 Also known as the Rich Mountain Campaign, or simply Operations in Western Virginia, the Western Virginia Campaign was a struggle between Union and Confederate forces in 1861 for control of the mountainous area of western Virginia. As the possibility of civil war in the United States evolved during the early months of 1861,…
William Babcock Hazen
September 27, 1830 – January 16, 1887 A prominent Union officer, Major General William B. Hazen served in nearly all of the major campaigns in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. William Babcock Hazen was born on September 27, 1830, in West Hartford, Vermont. He was the third son and the fifth of…
William Buel Franklin
February 27, 1823 – March 8, 1903 As commander of the 6th and 19th Army Corps, William B. Franklin served the Union in the Eastern and Western Theaters of the American Civil War. William B. Franklin was born in York, Pennsylvania on February 27, 1823. He was the first of six children of Walter S.…
William Clarke Quantrill
July 31, 1837 – June 6, 1865 William C. Quantrill was a Confederate irregular whose band of raiders employed guerrilla tactics in the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the Civil War to harass Union troops and terrorize Northern sympathizers. William Clarke Quantrill was born in Canal Dover (now Dover), Ohio, on October 11, 1837. He was the…