Year
1862 was a
common year starting on
Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the
Gregorian calendar (or a
common year starting on
Monday of the 12-day slower
Julian
calendar).
Events of 1862
January–March
- January 1 – Britain
annexes Lagos
Island in
modern-day Nigeria
.
- January 6 – French
, Spanish
, and
British
forces arrive in Veracruz, Mexico, beginning the
French intervention in
Mexico.
- January 10 – John Gately Downey, 7th Governor of California, is
succeeded by Amasa Leland
Stanford.
- January 30 – The first US ironclad warship, the USS
Monitor, is launched.
- January 31 –
Alvan Graham Clark makes the
first observation of Sirius B, a white dwarf star, through an eighteen inch
telescope at Northwestern University
.
- February 1 – Julia Ward Howe's Battle Hymn of the Republic
is published for the first time in the Atlantic Monthly.
- February 6 – American Civil War General Ulysses S. Grant
gives the United
States
its first victory of the war, by capturing Fort Henry,
Tennessee
.
- February 15 – American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant
attacks Fort
Donelson
, Tennessee
and captures it the next day.
- February 20 : Ángel de Saavedra, Duke of
Rivas, named director of Spain's La Real Academia Española de la
Lengua ( Royal Academy of Spanish Language ).
- February 21 – American Civil War: Battle of Valverde fought near Fort Craig in New
Mexico Territory.
- February 22 –
American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is officially inaugurated in
Richmond,
Virginia
, to a 6-year term as president of the Confederate States of
America.
- March 7 – American Civil War – The Battle of Pea Ridge: The
Confederates are shut out of Missouri
.
- March 8 – American Civil War: The iron-clad
CSS Virginia (formerly USS
Merrimack) is launched at Hampton Roads
, Virginia
; the Battle of
Hampton Roads starts the same day.
- March 9 – American Civil War: First battle between
two ironclad warships, the USS
Monitor and the CSS
Virginia, begins.
- March 13 American Civil War: The U.S. federal
government forbids all Union army officers from returning fugitive
slaves, thus effectively annulling the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 and
setting the stage for the Emancipation Proclamation.
- March 28 – American Civil War – Battle of
Glorieta Pass
: In New
Mexico
, Union forces succeed in stopping the Confederate invasion of
New Mexico territory (the
battle began on March 26).
April–June
- April 1 : The Spanish and the British
end their alliance with France in the French intervention in
Mexico..
- April 5 – American Civil War – Battle of
Yorktown
: The battle begins when Union
forces under
General George B.
McClellan close in on the Confederate capital Richmond,
Virginia
.
- April 6 – American Civil War: In Tennessee
, the Battle of Shiloh
begins.
- April 7 – American Civil War – Battle of
Shiloh
: Union
Army under
General Ulysses S.
Grant defeats the Confederates near Shiloh,
Tennessee
.
- April 12 – American Civil War – Andrew's Raid Union
volunteers
steal a Confederate locomotive, setting off The Great Locomotive
Chase.
- April 25 – American Civil War: Forces under Union
Admiral David Farragut capture the
Confederate city of
New Orleans,
Louisiana
.
- April 26 – American Civil War: The besieged Confederate garrison at
Fort
Macon
, North
Carolina
surrenders.
- May 2 – The California State Normal
School (now San Jose State University
) is created by an Act of the California
Legislature.
- May 5 – Battle of Puebla: Mexican
General Ignacio
Zaragoza defeats the French
Army;
commemorated each year as "Cinco de
Mayo" (Spanish "Five of May").
- May 11 – American Civil War: The ironclad CSS Virginia is scuttled in the
James River northwest of
Norfolk,
Virginia
.
- May 15 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs a bill into law
creating the United States Bureau of Agriculture (later renamed
USDA
).
- May 20 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act into law.
- June 1 – American Civil War – Battle of
Fair Oaks
: Both sides claim victory.
- June 4 – American Civil War: Confederate troops evacuate
Fort
Pillow
on the Mississippi
River, leaving the way clear for Union
troops to
take Memphis,
Tennessee
.
- June 6 – American Civil War – Battle of Memphis: Union
forces capture Memphis, Tennessee
from the Confederates
- June 8 – American Civil War – Battle of
Cross Keys
: Confederate forces under
General Stonewall Jackson save the
Army of Northern Virginia
from a Union
assault on
the James Peninsula led by General George B. McClellan.
- June 12 – John Winter Robinson, Secretary of State of Kansas,
is convicted and removed from office as the result of a bond scandal, becoming the first state
executive official to be impeached and removed from
office in U.S. history.
- June 26- American Civil War – Battle of
Mechanicsville
: Confederate General Robert E. Lee defeats Union General George McClellan in the first of the
Seven Days' Battles.
July–September
- July 1
- July 2 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the Morrill Land Grant Act into law,
creating land-grant colleges to teach agricultural and mechanical
sciences across the United States.
- July 4 – Charles
Dodgson (better known as Lewis
Carroll) extemporises the story that becomes Alice's Adventures in
Wonderland for 10-year-old Alice
Liddell and her sisters, on a rowing boat trip on The Isis
, from Oxford
to Godstow
.
- July 16 – American Civil War: David G. Farragut becomes the first United States Navy rear admiral.
- July 18 – First
ascent of Dent
Blanche
, one of the highest summits in the
Alps.
- July 19 – American Civil War – Morgan's Raid: At Buffington Island
in Ohio
, Confederate General John Hunt Morgan's raid into the North is
mostly thwarted when a large group of his men are captured while
trying to escape across the Ohio
River.
- July 23 – American Civil War: Henry W. Halleck
takes command of the Union
Army.
- August 5 – American Civil War – Battle of
Baton Rouge
: Along the Mississippi
River near Baton Rouge, Louisiana
, Confederate troops drive
Union
forces back
into the city.
- August 6 – American Civil War: The Confederate ironclad CSS Arkansas is scuttled on the
Mississippi River after suffering
damage in a battle with the USS
Essex near Baton Rouge, Louisiana
.
- August 9 – American Civil War – Battle of
Cedar Mountain
: At Cedar Mountain, Virginia, Confederate General Stonewall Jackson narrowly defeats
Union
forces under
General John
Pope.
- August 14 – Abraham Lincoln meets with a group of
prominent African-Americans – the first time a President has done
so. He suggests Black people should migrate to Africa or Central
America, but this advice is rejected.
- August 17 –
Indian Wars: A Lakota (Sioux) uprising begins in Minnesota
as Lakota Sioux attack white settlements along the
Minnesota River. They are
overwhelmed by the U.S. military 6 weeks later.
- August 19 – Indian
Wars: During an uprising in Minnesota
, Lakota warriors
decide not to attack heavily defended Fort Ridgely
and instead turn to the settlement of New
Ulm
, killing white settlers along the way.
- August 21 – The
Vienna
Stadtpark
opens its gates.
- August 28–August 30 – American
Civil War – Second Battle of Bull Run
: Confederate forces inflict a crushing defeat on
Union General John Pope.
- September 1 –
American Civil War – Battle of
Chantilly
: Confederate General Robert E. Lee leads his forces in an attack on
retreating Union
troops in
Chantilly,
Virginia
, driving them away.
- September 2 –
American Civil War: President
Abraham Lincoln reluctantly restores
Union
General
George B. McClellan to full command after General
John Pope's disastrous
defeat at the Battle of Second Bull Run
.
- September 5 – American Civil War: In the Confederacy's first invasion
of the North, General Robert E.
Lee leads 55,000 men of the Army of Northern Virginia across
the Potomac River at White's Ford
near Leesburg, Virginia
, into Maryland
.
- September 17 – American Civil War –
- September 19 –
American Civil War – Battle of
Iuka
: Union troops under Major
General William Rosecrans defeat a
Confederate force
commanded by Major General Sterling
Price at Iuka,
Mississippi
.
- September 22
- September 29 – Bismarck delivers
his Blood and Iron speech to the Prussian Assembly.
October–December
- December 2 – The first U.S. Navy hospital ships enter service.
- December 13 –
Battle of
Fredericksburg
: The Union Army suffers
massive casualties and abandons attempts to capture the Confederate
capital of Richmond,
Virginia
.
- December 18 – General Order No.
11, expelling
all Jews in his military district, is issued
by General Ulysses S. Grant (it is rescinded a few weeks
later).
- December 26 – William D.
Duly
hangs 38 Dakota Sioux in Minnesota
.
- December
26–29 – American Civil War – Battle of
Chickasaw Bayou
: Another victory for the Confederate Army, outnumbered 2 to 1,
results in 6 times as many Union casualties, defeating several
assaults coordinated by Union commander William T. Sherman.
- December 30 – The
USS Monitor sinks off Cape Hatteras
, North
Carolina
.
- December 31 –
American Civil War: Abraham Lincoln signs an act that admits
West
Virginia
to the
Union (thus dividing Virginia in two); meanwhile, the Battle of
Stones River
is fought near Murfreesboro, Tennessee
.
- December – Peruvian
slave-raiders land on Easter Island
, beginning a decade of near-genocide
on the island.
Undated
Ongoing events
Births
- January 9 – Carrie Clark Ward, character actress (d.
1926)
- January 15 – Loie Fuller, American dancer (d. 1928)
- January 23 – David Hilbert, German mathematician (d.
1943)
- January 24 – Edith Wharton, American writer (d. 1937)
- January 29 – Frederick Delius, English composer (d.
1934)
- February 4 – George Ernest Morrison, Australian
adventurer and journalist (d. 1920)
- February 7 – Bernard Ralph Maybeck, American
architect (d. 1957)
- February 25 – Stanisław Głąbiński,
Polish politician, academic, lawyer and writer (d. 1941)
- March 4 – Jacob Robert Emden, Swiss astrophysicist
and meteorologist (d. 1940)
- March 8 – George Frederick Phillips,
Canadian-born military hero (d. 1904)
- March 13 – Jane
Delano, American founder of the American Red Cross Nursing
Service (d. 1919)
- March 17 – Silvio Gesell, economist (d. 1930)
- March 25 – William E. Johnson, American leader of the Anti-Saloon League (d. 1950)
- March 28 – Aristide Briand, French politician,
recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
(d. 1932)
- March 29 – Adolfo Müller-Ury, artist (d.
1947)
- April 2 – Nicholas M. Butler, American president of Columbia
University, recipient of the Nobel
Peace Prize (d. 1947)
- April 6 – Georges Darien, French writer (d. 1921)
- April 11 – Charles Evans Hughes, American jurist
and statesman (d. 1961)
- April 26 – Edmund Charles Tarbell, American
artist (d. 1938)
- May 15 – Arthur Schnitzler, Austrian dramatist and
narrator (d. 1931)
- May 27 – John Kendrick Bangs, American author and
satirist (d. 1922)
- June 5 – Allvar Gullstrand, Swedish
ophthalmologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology
or Medicine (d. 1930)
- June 7 – Philipp Lenard, Hungarian–German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1947)
- June 10 – Caroline Louise Dudley aka
(Mrs. Leslie Carter), stage &
screen actress (d. 1937)
- June 21 – Damrong Rajanubhab, Thai prince and
historian (d. 1943)
- June 27 – May
Irwin, Canadian actress and singer (d. 1938)
- July 2 – William Henry Bragg, English physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1942)
- July 14 – Gustav
Klimt, Austrian artist (d. 1918)
- July 16 – Ida
B. Wells, American journalist,
suffragist, and anti-lynching crusader (d. 1931)
- August 5 – Joseph Carey Merrick, English oddity
(d. 1890)
- August 21 – Emilio Salgari, Italian writer (d. 1911)
- August 22 – Claude Debussy, French composer (died
1918)
- August 26 – Herbert Booth, the third son of William and Catherine Booth (d. 1926)
- August 29
- September 11 – O. Henry, American writer
(d. 1910)
- September 25 – Billy Hughes, seventh Prime Minister of Australia (d.
1952)
- October 3 – Johnny Briggs, English cricketer
(d. 1902)
- October 19 – Auguste Lumière, French inventor (d.
1954)
- October 26 – Thomas J. Preston, Jr., Professor of Archeology at Princeton University
, second husband of Frances Cleveland, widow of President
Grover Cleveland (d.
1955)
- November 3 – Henry George, Jr., American politician (d.
1916)
- November 14 – George Washington Vanderbilt
II, American businessman (d. 1914)
- November 15 – Gerhart Hauptmann, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1946)
- November 16 – Charles Turner, Australian
cricketer (d. 1944)
- November 19 – Billy Sunday, American baseball player,
evangelist, prohibitionist (d. 1935)
- December 8 – Georges Feydeau, French playwright (d.
1921)
- December 12 – J. Bruce Ismay,
Shipping line magnate, White Star
Line, (d. 1937)
Deaths
- January 10 – Samuel Colt, American firearms inventor (b.
1814)z
- January 18 – John Tyler, 10th President of the United
States (b. 1790)
- February 7 – Prosper Meniere, French scientist (b.
1799)
- February 20
- February 24 – Bernhard Severin Ingemann, Danish
novelist and poet (b. 1789)
- March 22 – Manuel Robles Pezuela, former
President of Mexico (executed) (b. 1817)
- April 10 – W.H.L. Wallace,
American Civil War general (b.
1821)
- April 19 – Louis P. Harvey, Governor of Wisconsin (b. 1820)
- May 6 – Henry David Thoreau, American author and
philosopher (b. 1817)
- May 16 – Edward Gibbon Wakefield, theorist of
colonization.
- May 21 – John Drew Sr., stage actor & manager,
(b. 1827)
- July 24 – Martin Van Buren, 8th President of the United
States (b. 1782)
- August 10 – Shusaku Honinbo, Japanese Go player (b.
1829)
- August 18 – Simon Fraser, Canadian explorer (b. 1776)
- August 20 – Javiera Carrera, Chilean independence
fighter (b. 1771)
- September 6 – John Bird Sumner, Archbishop of Canterbury (b.
1780)
- September 14 – Charles Lennox Richardson,
Englishman murdered in Japan (b. 1834)
- October 15 – Hans Daniel Ludwig
Friedrich Hassenpflug, German statesman (b. 1794)
- November 13 – Ludwig Uhland, German poet (b. 1787)
- December 18 – Barbara Fritchie, U.S. patriot in Civil War
(b. 1766)