On This Day

March 1865 in History

Events in History

  • Mar 2 British newspaper "Morning Chronicle" begins publishing
  • Mar 2 Freedman's Bureau founded for Black Education, 1865
  • Mar 2 Conferate General Early's army is defeated at the battle of Waynesboro, Virginia, during American Civil War
  • Mar 2 Second Taranaki War: The Volkner Incident in New Zealand.

Historic Event

Mar 3 US Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, & Abandoned Lands established by Abraham Lincoln to help destitute free blacks

Abraham Lincoln
16th US President Abraham Lincoln
  • Mar 3 Opening of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, the founding member of the HSBC Group.
  • Mar 4 Confederate congress approves final design of "official flag"

John Wilkes Booth at Lincoln's Inauguration

Mar 4 Abraham Lincoln inaugurated for his 2nd term as US President. The man who would assassinate him weeks later, John Wilkes Booth, is photographed attending the inauguration.

A photo of Abraham Lincoln's second inauguration in 1865, highlighting the location of his eventual assassin John Wilkes Booth as Lincoln makes his speech
  • Mar 6 Battle of Natural Bridge, Florida
  • Mar 6 US President Abraham Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural Ball
  • Mar 7 -10] Battles around Kinston, North Carolina
  • Mar 8 Battle of Kingston, North Carolina (Wilcox's ridge, Wise's Forks)
  • Mar 10 Battle of Monroe's Crossroads, NC

Historic Event

Mar 11 General William T. Sherman's Union forces occupies Fayetteville, North Carolina

William Tecumseh Sherman
Union General William Tecumseh Sherman

Historic Event

Mar 13 Confederate President Jefferson Davis signs bill authorizing use of slaves as soldiers (US Civil War)

Jefferson Davis
President of the Confederate States of America Jefferson Davis
  • Mar 16 Battle of Averasboro North Carolina (1,500 casualties)
  • Mar 18 Battle of Wilson's raid to Selma, Alabama
  • Mar 18 Congress of Confederate States of American adjourns for last time
  • Mar 19 Battle of Bentonville, Confederates retreat from Greenville North Carolina
  • Mar 20 2nd day of Battle of Bentonville, North Carolina
  • Mar 20 Michigan authorizes workers' cooperatives
  • Mar 21 Battle of Bentonville ends, last Confederate effort to stop Sherman
  • Mar 22 Wilson's Raid: 13,480 cavalry troops led by Union General James H. Wilson destroys most of Confederate Alabama and Georgia's arms-manufacturing and rail capabilities; raid lasts through mid-April, after Lee's surrender natural resources useless to the [1] [2]
  • Mar 23 General Sherman and Cox' troops reach Goldsboro, North Carolina
  • Mar 25 Battle of Bluff Spring, Florida
  • Mar 25 Battle of Petersburg: In an unsuccessful counter attack, Confederate forces attack Fort Stedman
  • Mar 25 Battle of Mobile, Alabama (Spanish Fort, Fort Morgan, Fort Blakely)
  • Mar 25 SS General Lyon at Cape Hatteras catches fire & sinks, killing 400
  • Mar 27 Siege of Spanish Fort, AL-captured by Federals
  • Mar 29 -Apr 9th], Appomattox campaign, Virginia, 7582 killed
  • Mar 29 Battle of Lewis's Farm [alt. Quaker Road, Gravelly Run], in Dinwiddie County, Virginia begins (Union victory)
  • Mar 30 -4] Battle at 5 Forks, Virginia
  • Mar 31 Battle of Boydton, Virginia (White Oaks Roads, Dinwiddie C H)
  • Mar 31 General Pickett moves to 5 Forks, abandoning the defense of Petersburg

Birthdays in History

  • Mar 1 Gerard Vissering, Dutch banker/president (Bank of Java)
  • Mar 1 Abe Iso, Japanese politician (d. 1949)
  • Mar 8 Frederick William Goudy, American printer and type designer, born in Bloomington, Illinois (d. 1947)
  • Mar 9 Margaret Murray Washington, Wife of Booker T. Washington and Lady Principal of Tuskegee, born in Macon, Mississippi (d. 1925)
  • Mar 19 William Morton Wheeler, American entomologist, myrmecologist, pioneer in ethology (d. 1937)
  • Mar 21 Herbert Albert Laurens Fisher, English historian and politician, born in London, United Kingdom (d. 1940)
  • Mar 25 Pierre Weiss, French physicist (theory of ferromagnetism), born in Mulhouse, France (d. 1940)
  • Mar 30 Heinrich Rubens, German physicist

Deaths in History

  • Mar 1 Anna Pavlovna, Russian queen consort of the William II of the Netherlands, dies at 70
  • Mar 2 Carl Sylvius Völkner, German missionary to New Zealand (b. 1819)
  • Mar 10 William Henry "Little Billy" Chase Whiting, American Confederate Major General, dies in a prison camp at 48
  • Mar 20 Keisuke Yamanami, Japanese samurai (b. 1833)
  • Mar 26 Thomas Hancock, pioneer of rubber industry (Stoke Newington), dies
  • Mar 27 Petrus Hoffman Peerlkamp, Dutch scholar (b. 1786)
  • Mar 28 Albert G Bilders, Dutch landscape painter, dies at 26


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