Historical Events
- Dec 5 Battle of Coffeeville, MS
Historic Event
Dec 6 US President Abraham Lincoln orders hanging of 39 Santee Sioux Indians
Battle of Interest
Dec 11 Battle of Fredricksburg in Virginia begins between Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and the Union Army of the Potomac, commanded by Major General Ambrose Burnside
- Dec 12 Battle of Dumfries, Virginia
- Dec 12 Naval Engagement at Yazoo River, MS (USS CAIRO torpedoed)
- Dec 13 Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia (Marye's Heights)
- Dec 14 Battle of Kinston, fought in Lenoir County, North Carolina begins (Goldsboro Expedition), Union victory (US Civil War)
- Dec 16 Kingdom of Nepal accepts its constitution
Historic Event
Dec 17 General Ulysses S. Grant issues order #11, expelling Jews from Tennessee
Historic Event
Dec 20 Confederate Army Brigadier General Nathan Bedford Forrest occupies Trenton, Kentucky (US Civil War)
- Dec 22 -Jan 2nd) Raid on Morgan's: Bardstown to Elizabethtown, KY
Historic Event
Dec 23 Union General Ben "Beast" Butler is proclaimed a "felon, outlaw & common enemy of mankind" by Jefferson Davis
- Dec 25 40,000 watch Union army men play baseball at Hilton Head, South Carolina
- Dec 26 Battle of Dumfries begins in Virginia
- Dec 26 1st US navy hospital ship enters service
- Dec 26 Largest mass execution in US history: 38 Dakota men were executed via hanging in the aftermath of the U.S.-Dakota War in Mankato, Minnesota.
- Dec 27 Battle of Chickasaw Bluffs, MS (Chickasaw Bayou)
- Dec 27 Battle of Elizabethtown, Kentucky
Victory in Battle
Dec 29 Battle of Chichasaw Bayou: confederate armies defeat General William T. Sherman
- Dec 29 Bowling ball invented
- Dec 31 -Jan 20th) Battle of Stone's River (Battle of Murfreesboro), Tennessee in US Civil War
- Dec 31 President Abraham Lincoln signs act admitting West Virginia to the Union
- Dec 31 Skirmish at Parker Cross Roads, Tennessee
- Dec 31 Union ironclad ship "Monitor" sank off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina
Famous Birthdays
- Dec 3 Jules Renkin, Belgian politician (28th Prime Minister of Belgium 1931-32), born in Ixelles, Belgium (d. 1934
- Dec 7 Paul Adam, French writer (La Bataille d'Uhde), born in Paris (d. 1920)
- Dec 8 Georges Feydeau, French playwright (La Dame de Chez Maxim's), born in Paris (d. 1921)
- Dec 9 Karel Kovařovic, Czech composer, born in Prague (d. 1920)
- Dec 14 John M. Acket, Dutch literary (Grammatic Conceptions) (d. 1933)
- Dec 15 Jack 'The Nonpareil' Dempsey, Irish boxer (first holder of World Middleweight Championship 1886-90), born in Curran, County Kildare (d. 1895)
- Dec 16 Eugene Demolder, Belgian writer (Sous la robe)
Connie Mack
Dec 22 Connie Mack, American Baseball Hall of Fame catcher, manager and owner (World Series 1910, 11, 13, 29, 30; most managerial wins, losses & games managed in MLB history; Philadelphia A's), born in East Brookfield, Massachusetts (d. 1956)
Famous Deaths
- Dec 7 Sylvester Churchill, US Union brigadier general, dies
- Dec 13 Conrad Feger Jackson, US Union brigadier general, dies in Battle of Fredericksburg at 49
- Dec 13 Maxcy Gregg, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies in Battle of Fredericksburg at 48
- Dec 13 Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies in Battle of Fredericksburg at 39
- Dec 14 George Dashiell Bayard, Union Brigadier General, dies at 27
- Dec 18 Johnson Kelly Duncan, American architect and Confederate brig-general, dies at 35 of malarial fever
- Dec 20 Robert Knox Scottish surgeon, anatomist and zoologist
- Dec 24 Joseph Funk, early American composer, dies at 84
- Dec 28 Joaquim Casimiro Jr., Portuguese composer, dies at 54
- Dec 31 James Edward Rains, American lawyer and Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies in Battle of Stone's River at 29
- Dec 31 Joshua Woodrow Sill, US Union brigadier general, dies in Battle of Stone's River at 31
