Civil War Timeline 1861 - 1863

Jan. 9,1861 Mississippi secedes from the Union

Jan.20, 1861 Mississippi troops occupy Fort Massachusetts on Ship Island

Sept. 17, 1861 Ship Island evacuated by Mississippi troops

Dec. 3, 1861 Union troops occupy Fort Massachusetts

Dec. 31, 1861 Union naval and army units begin raids on the Gulf Coast

Mar. 8, 1862 Skirmish at Mississippi City

Apr. 3, 1862 Skirmish at Biloxi

Apr. 4, 1862 Skirmish at Pass Christian

Apr. 6, 1862 Battle of Shiloh, north of Corinth Confederate Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston against Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant A Johnston killed, succeeded by Gen. RG.T. Beauregard

Apr. 7, 1862 Battle of Shiloh continues A Beauregard withdraws to Corinth A Confederates surrender Island No. 1 0 on the Mississippi River to a Union amphibious force commanded by Gen. John Pope

Apr. 24, 1862 Flag Officer David G. Farragut, USN, sails up the Mississippi River, passes Forts Jackson and St. Phillips, which guard the southern approaches to New Orleans, and destroys the southern fleet. New Orleans surrenders. Baton Rouge surrenders soon afterward

Apr. 29,1862 Union siege operations against Corinth begin. Union Gen. Henry W. Halleck is in command; Grant is second in command

May 9, 1862 Battle at Farmington in north Mississippi, above Corinth

May 12-13, 1862 Commander of Union naval flotilla demands that the city of Natchez surrender. The mayor, saying that he has no authority to do so, refuses

May 1 6, 1862 Grand Gulf shelled by Union naval task force of six gunboats led by Commander S. Phillips Lee

May 1 8, 1862 Lee's task force anchors below Vicksburg; he calls on city to surrender

May 29,1862 Beauregard evacuates Corinth

May 30, 1862 Halleck occupies Corinth

June 4, 1862 Confederates evacuate Fort Pillow, on the Mississippi above Memphis, TN

June 6, 1862 Memphis surrenders

June 10, 1862 Halleck breaks up his 120,000-man army at Corinth; Gen. Don Carlos Buell sent east to Chattanooga; Gen. Pope transferred to Virginia; Gen. William T Sherman occupies Memphis

June II, 1862 Halleck leaves Corinth for Washington; Grant resumes command

June 22, 1862 Union raid on Pass Christian on the coast

June 27, 1862 Jefferson Davis replaces Beauregard with Gen. Braxton Bragg; Bragg transfers troops to Chattanooga by rail; Gen. Earl Van Dorn sent to Vicksburg; Two of Van Dorn's divisions left at Tupelo under Gen. Sterling Price

June 28, 1862 With eight ships, Farragut heads up the Mississippi River from south of Vicksburg, bombarding the city and passing its batteries; Soldiers under the command of Gen. Thomas Williams, who had left Baton Rouge on June 7-9, land and begin work on a canal across De Soto Point, opposite Vicksburg

July 1, 1862 Battle at Booneville; Cavalry battle between units commanded by Union Col. Philip H. Sheridan and Confederate Gen. James R. Chalmers; Since the fall of Corinth, the Federals had sought to maintain control throughout northeastern Mississippi by keeping its cavalry on the move in the region; Union fleet commanded by Flag Officer Charles H. Davis reaches Young's Point from Memphis

July 14, 1862 Confederate ram Arkansas, commanded by Lt. Isaac N. Brown, completed at the Yazoo City Confederate naval yard, sails out of Liverpool and down the Yazoo River

July 15, 1862 Engagement between combined Union fleets, both Davis' and Farragut's, and the Arkansas; The Arkansas ties up in front of Vicksburg

July 15-16, 1862 Union fleet descends the river, attempting to but failing to destroy the Arkansas

July 22, 1862 Union attack on the Arkansas - by the ironclad Essex and the ram Queen of the West - fails

July 24,1862 Farragut's fleet and Williams' infantry withdraw to Baton Rouge and New Orleans

July 25, 1862 Federals evacuate Natchez

July 27, 1862 Davis' fleet withdraws upriver, the first Union failure to capture Vicksburg

Aug. 1-5, 1862 Confederates fail to recapture Baton Rouge, then occupy and fortify Port Hudson; Confederacy controls 240 miles of the Mississippi between Port Hudson and Vicksburg

Aug. 16-27, 1862 Union operations from Helena, AR, down the Mississippi and up the Yazoo

Sept. 3, 1862 Natchez is shelled by the USS Essex

Sept. 13, 1862 Confederate Gen. Sterling Price's army enters Iuka on march north to threaten Nashville, TN; Union troops evacuate town

Sept. 19, 1862 Battle of luka; Price attacks on eastern slopes of Woodall Mountain by Grant supported by Gen. William S. Rosecrans; Price holds his ground but withdraws during the night, joining army of Gen. Earl Van Dorn; Halleck has been transferred to Washington, Grant assumes command

Sept. 23, 1862 Confederate Gen. Mansfield Lovell's division combines with Price's divisions at Ripley to form the Army of West Tennessee (Van Dorn commanding)

Oct. 3-4, 1862 Battle of Corinth; Van Dorn, commanding Confederate forces, has Price attack Union positions under Rosecrans' command in front of Corinth in a two-day battle in attempt to push the Federals back into Tennessee and secure the vital railroad crossing at Corinth; Fierce fighting in town and at Batteries Williams and Robinett; Attack fails, and on second day Van Dorn withdraws to Chewalia

Oct. 5, 1862 Battle at Hatchie Bridge; Federal column blocks Van Dorn's escape here; Van Dorn forced to retreat to the south

Nov. 2, 1862 Grant's autumn offensive against Confederate armies in Mississippi begins; Considered Grant's first campaign, Union's second, against Vicksburg

Nov. 26, 1862 Grant occupies Holly Springs, sets up a major supply depot, then moves south; Holly Springs is on the line of the Mississippi Central, a major transportation artery running north and south to Jackson


Nov. 27, 1862 Union cavalry raid is launched from Friars Point in the Mississippi Delta; Union force marches rapidly toward the railroad at Grenada on the Yalobusha River, a flanking movement that threatens to cut Pemberton's line of supply

Nov.29,1862 Sending the Texas Cavalry Brigade into the Delta to counter the Union raid, Pemberton withdraws southward into his defensive earthworks at Grenada, fortifications constructed to defend the Yalobusha crossing against an attack by Grant

Dec. 1 -4, 1862 Skirmishing in and about Oxford as Grant moves south

Dec. 5, 1862 Battle at Coffeeville; Grant's columns bog down north of town between the Tallahatchie and Yocona Rivers; The Union cavalry pushed too far ahead and is defeated

Dec. 8, 1862 Union Naval operation against Vicksburg begins

Dec. 1 2, 1862 Federal expedition up the Yazoo ends with the sinking of the ironclad USS Cairo

Dec. 17, 1862 Van Dorn's cavalry raid begins from within Pemberton's lines at Grenada; Intent is to cut Union supply lines on the line of the Mississippi Central Railroad

Dec. 19, 1862 President Jefferson Davis and Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, recently appointed by Davis to command all Confederate armies in the western theater, meet with Pemberton in Grenada to discuss the defense of Vicksburg, the town Davis believes to be the "vital point" of the Confederacy

Dec. 20, 1862 Van Dorn destroys Grant's supply depot at Holly Springs; Union force raised by Gen. Sherman embarks from Memphis

Dec. 26, 1862 Sherman's force, including units raised by Gen. John A. McCiernand (Sherman commanding), lands at Johnson's Plantation, northeast of Vicksburg

Dec. 26-27, 1862 Union fleet bombards Snyder's Bluff on the Yazoo, skirmishing occurs on both days