- Sep 17 American Civil War: The Allegheny Arsenal explosion results in the single largest civilian disaster during the war; 78 workers killed.
- Sep 17 Battle of Antietam [Battle of Sharpsburg], bloodiest day in the American Civil War: 22,000 dead, wounded or missing in first battle on Union soil
- Sep 17 Battle of Cumberland Gap, Tennessee - evacuated by Federals
- Sep 17 Battle of Mumfordville, Kentucky, US Col J Wilder surrenders city
- Sep 18 Confederate armies officially divide into corps
- Sep 18 General Read army pulls out of Antietam Creek Virginia
- Sep 19 -20] Battle at Blackford's Ford, Virginia
- Sep 19 Battle at Iuka Mississippi (1,700 casualties)
Event of Interest
Sep 22 US President Abraham Lincoln issues preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, threatening to free all enslaved people in the rebel southern states if those states fail to re-join the Union by January 1, 1863 [1]
The German Empire
Sep 23 Otto von Bismarck appointed Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Prussia by King Wilhelm I
- Sep 23 US President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation is published in northern newspapers [1]
- Sep 24 Confederate Congress adopts confederacy seal
- Sep 25 Skirmish at Davis' Bridge, Tennessee
- Sep 30 First Battle of Newtonia (American Civil War), Newton County, Missouri
- Sep 30 Minister-President of Prussia Otto von Bismarck delivers his famous "Blood and Iron" speech on the unification of German territories
- Oct 3 -10] Battle of Corinth, Mississippi
- Oct 3 Skirmish at Bardstown, Kentucky
- Oct 4 Battle of Corinth ends
- Oct 5 Battle of Hatchie Bridge, Tennessee; confederate forces avoid capture by Union army
- Oct 5 Federal fleet occupies Galveston, Texas
- Oct 8 Battle of Perryville, Kentucky - Confederate invasion halted
Event of Interest
Oct 12 Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart completes his "second ride around Mcclellan"
- Oct 12 Major General Earl Van Dorn assumes command of Confederate troops in Mississippi
- Oct 12 Skirmish at Monocacy, Maryland
- Oct 14 Excelsiors defeat Unions of Morrisania 13-9
- Oct 17 Battle of Leetown & Thoroughfare Gap, VA
- Oct 18 Morgan's raiders capture federal garrison at Lexington, KY
- Oct 20 Amnesty proclaimed for escaped slaves of Suriname
- Oct 22 Battle at Old Fort Wayne, Indian Territory
- Oct 22 Confederate troops reconquer Cumperland Gap, Tennessee
- Nov 3 Battle until the 5th November between gunboats at Bayou Teche, a waterway in Louisiana
Historic Invention
Nov 4 American inventor Richard Jordan Gatling patents the hand cranked Gatling machine gun in Indianapolis
Event of Interest
Nov 5 Ambrose Burnside replaces McClellen as head of Army of Potomac
- Nov 5 Battle at Barbee's Crossroads, Virginia: 51 casualties
- Nov 6 New York-San Francisco direct telegraphic link forms
Event of Interest
Nov 9 US General Ulysses S. Grant issues orders to bar Jews from serving under him
- Nov 17 Confederate Secretary of War George B. Randolph resigns
- Nov 17 Union General Ambrose Burnside marches north out of Washington, D.C., to begin the Fredericksburg campaign
- Nov 20 Confederate armies of Mississippi and Kentucky merge as Army of Tennessee, under General Braxton Bragg
- Nov 24 M Levy publishes Gustave Flaubert's novel "Salammbo"
- Nov 28 Battle at Cane Hill, Arkansas (475 casualties)
- Nov 28 Battle of Hooly Spring, MS
- Dec 5 Battle of Coffeeville, MS
- Dec 6 US President Abraham Lincoln orders hanging of 39 Santee Sioux Indians
- Dec 7 Battle of Hartsville, TN
- Dec 7 Battle of Prairie Grove, AR
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
- Dec 17 General Ulysses S. Grant issues order #11, expelling Jews from Tennessee
- Dec 18 Battle at Lexington, Tennessee (part of Forrest's Second Raid)
- Dec 19 Skirmish at Jackson, Salem Church, Tennessee (80 casualties)
- Dec 20 -Dec 20th] Battle of Kelly's Ford, VA
- Dec 20 -Jan 3rd] Vicksburg campaign
Event of Interest
Dec 20 Confederate Army Brigadier General Nathan Bedford Forrest occupies Trenton, Kentucky (US Civil War)
- Dec 20 Confederate raid on Union supplies at Holly Springs, Mississippi
- Dec 22 -Jan 2nd) Raid on Morgan's: Bardstown to Elizabethtown, KY
Event of Interest
Dec 23 Union General Ben "Beast" Butler is proclaimed a "felon, outlaw & common enemy of mankind" by Jefferson Davis
- 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 [1]
- Dec 26 US Civil War: Battle of Dumfries begins in Virginia
- Dec 26 US Navy formally commissions 1st hospital ship, the USS Red Rover - a captured Confederate sidewheel barracks ship converted for the purpose - for service on the Mississippi [1] [2]
- 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