DK - The American Civil War

THE UNION TIGHTENS ITS GRIP 1863

APRIL 7

Admiral Samuel F.

Du Pont leads an

unsuccessful Union

naval assault

on Charleston,

South Carolina.

MAY 1

The Confederate

Congress resolves to

punish white Union

officers captured

while commanding

black units.

MAY 1

Battle of Port Gibson.

Grant’s troops defeat

Confederate forces on

the east bank of the

Mississippi River.

JANUARY 1

President Lincoln

issues the final version

of the Emancipation

Proclamation,

announcing the

freeing of all slaves in

states that seceded.

FEBRUARY 1

Union troops capture

Franklin, Tennessee.

MAY 1–6

Battle of Chancellorsville.

Although outnumbered,

General Robert E. Lee

outmaneuvers and

defeats Hooker’s Union

army. Stonewall Jackson

is mortally wounded.

JANUARY 3

Battle of Stones River

(Murfreesboro),

Tennessee, begun on

December 31, 1862,

ends indecisively.

General Braxton

Bragg’s Confederate

forces withdraw.

MARCH 3

The U.S. Congress

passes the

Conscription Act,

though in practice this

does less to boost

Union recruitment than

its supporters hoped.

APRIL 16–17

Union gunboats

and transports pass

Vicksburg in a daring

night move. General

Ulysses S. Grant’s

army is meanwhile

concentrating to the

south, at Hard Times.

MAY 6–17

Big Black River Campaign.

Grant defeats

Confederate forces

under generals Joseph E.

Johnston and John C.

Pemberton. Pemberton

retreats to Vicksburg.

JUNE 1–2

Harriet Tubman helps

lead Union troops in

their successful

Combahee River raid

in South Carolina.

JANUARY 11

The CSS Alabama

sinks the USS Hatteras

off Galveston, Texas.

Fort Hindman,

Arkansas, is captured

by Union forces.

FEBRUARY 3–20

Operations on the

Yazoo River, Arkansas.

Union troops fail in

attempts to close

in on Vicksburg,

Mississippi, using the

river system to the

city’s north and west.

MARCH 5

Confederate forces

take Franklin,

Tennessee.

JANUARY 26

General Joseph Hooker

is appointed to

command the Union

Army of the Potomac,

succeeding General

Ambrose Burnside.

FEBRUARY 5

Britain announces that

it will not attempt to

mediate between the

North and South.

MARCH 14

Part of Admiral David

G. Farragut’s Union

squadron succeeds

in getting past Port

Hudson, Louisiana,

after which it will

win supremacy

on the central

Mississippi River.

APRIL 17

Colonel Benjamin

Grierson leads Union

cavalry from La Grange,

Tennessee, on what

will be a three-week

raid through Mississippi

and Louisiana, to Baton

Rouge, distracting

Confederate generals

from the growing

threat to Vicksburg.

MAY 19

Siege of Vicksburg by

Grant’s forces begins.

JUNE 3

The main body of

Lee’s Army of Northern

Virginia begins to leave

the Fredericksburg

area to start what

will become the

Gettysburg campaign.

JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL MAY JUNE

Joseph Hooker

Union gunboats slip

past Vicksburg

Emancipation Proclamation ■ River operations in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana ■

Battle of Chancellorsville ■ Siege of Vicksburg ■ Combahee River raid ■ Gettysburg ■

Chickamauga Campaign ■ Chattanooga Campaign ■ Gettysburg Address

TIMELINE 1863

Harriet Tubman

The Battle of

Chancellorsville

Inkwells used to draft the

Emancipation Proclamation

Union Navy telescope