April 1
1865- Sheridan turns Lee's flank at Petersburg by defeating Maj. Gen. George
Pickett at Five Forks Va.
April 2
1863- Bread riot takes place in Richmond.
1865- Grant breaks through Lee's lines at Petersburg; Confederate Lt. Gen. A.P.
Hill is killed.
- Abandoning Petersburg, Lee begins to retreat westward toward Amelia Court
House.
- The Confederate government flees from Richmond.
- Wilson's Federal cavalry captures Selma, Ala.
April 3
1865- Federal troops enter Richmond and Petersburg, Va.
April 4
1861- Lincoln orders a relief expedition to Fort Sumter.
1862- McClellan's Union army on the Peninsula starts its advance on Richmond.
1865- Lincoln visits Richmond and meets with Union and Confederate figures.
April 5
1839- Robert Smalls (USN), the only black naval captain during the Civil War, is
born in Beaufort, S.C.
1862- McClellan besieges the Confederate defenses at Yorktown, Va.
1865- Sheridan blocks Lee's escape route south from Amelia Court House; Lee
moves west toward Lynchburg, Va.
-Civil government is restored in Tennessee
April 6
1862- Confederate maul Grant's army in a surprise attack at Shiloh; A.S. Johnston
is killed, and Beauregard takes command of the Rebel army.
1865- Grant cuts off and captures Lee's rear guard under Ewell at Saylor's Creek,
Va.
April 7
1862- Buell's reinforcement of Grant at Shiloh turns the battle in the Federals favor,
forcing Beauregard to retreat to Corinth, Miss
1863- Federal Rear Adm. Samuel F. Du Pont's attack on Fort Sumter is repulsed.
1865- Lee's troops fight off a Union attack at Farmville.
- Grant and Lee enter into correspondence leading to surrender.
April 8
1861- The relief expedition for Fort Sumter sails from New York.
1862- Over 5,000 Confederates on Island No.10 surrender to Maj. Gen. John Pope,
opening more of the Mississippi River.
1864- At Sabine Crossroads, La., Confederate Maj. Gen. Richard Taylor blocks
Banks' advance on Shreveport, halting the Red River Campaign.
1865- Sheridan Reaches Appomattox Station to cut off Lee's retreat.
April 9
1865- Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia to Grant at Appomattox Court
House, Va.
April 10
1865- Gen. Lee issues his last general orders, bidding "an affectionate farewell" to
his troops.
April 11
1862- Fort Pulaski is taken by Federal troops to insure the blockade of Savannah,
Ga.
1863- Longstreet opens siege of Suffolk, Va.
1864- Civil government is restored in Arkansas.
April 12
1861- Confederates open fire on Fort Sumter.
1862- "The Great Locomotive Chase" ends in northern Georgia; Federal raider
James J. Andrews and seven of his men are hanged as spies.
1864- Forrest captures Fort Pillow, Tenn., and is accused of the massacre of
Federal Negro troops.
1865- Wilson's Union cavalry captures Montgomery, Ala.
- Federal troops enter Mobile, Ala.
- At Greensboro, N.C., Johnston tells Jefferson Davis that further resistance is
impossible.
April 13
1861- Fort Sumter surrenders.
1865- Sherman enters Raleigh, N.C.
April 14
1865- Maj. Gen. Robert Anderson raises over Fort Sumter the same flag he had
lowered four years earlier.
- John Wilkes Booth shoots Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, and
Lewis Paine wounds Secretary of State Seward.
April 15
1861- Lincoln calls for 75,000 volunteers.
1865- Abraham Lincoln dies, and Andrew Johnson succeeds to the Presidency.
April 16
1862- The Confederate Congress votes conscription of able-bodied men between 18
and 35; subsequent acts provide exemptions for owners of twenty or more
slaves, and by the hiring of a substitute or payment of $500.
- Lincoln signs a bill abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia.
1863- Porter's flotilla runs past the Vicksburg guns, preparing the way for Grant's
new campaign south and east of the city.
April 17
1861- The Virginia convention votes an ordinance of secession.
1863- Col. Benjamin H. Grierson leads a Federal cavalry raid behind Confederate
lines in Mississippi to disrupt Rebel communications with Vicksburg.
1864- Grant halts prisoner exchange, increasing the Confederate manpower
shortage.
April 18
1861- Robert E. Lee is offered command of the Federal armies.
- The Union garrison abandons Harpers Ferry.
1865- Johnston and Sherman meet near Raleigh, N.C., where they sign a broad
agreement.
April 19
1861- The 6th Massachusetts Regiment clashes with a Baltimore mob.
- Lincoln proclaims a blockade of Confederate ports from South Carolina to
Texas.
April 20
1861- Lee resigns from the U.S. Army.
- Confederates seize the abandoned Union navy yard at Norfolk, Va.
April 21
1865- President Johnson and the cabinet disapprove Sherman's armistice with
Johnston and send Grant to North Carolina.
April 22
1861- Robert E. Lee is named commander of the forces of Virginia.
April 23
1860- Democratic Presidential nominating convention meets in Charleston, S.C.
April 24
1865- Pres. Johnson disapproves terms of agreement between Gens. Sherman and
Johnston: hostilities must be resumed if there is no surrender.
April 25
1862- Flag Officer David G. Farragut captures New Orleans after successfully
passing Forts Jackson and St. Philip, which surrender three days later.
1864- Banks retires to Alexandria, La.; low water in the Red River temporarily traps
Porter's gunboats.
April 26
1865- Johnston accepts from Sherman the same surrender terms Grant offered Lee.
- John Wilkes Booth is trapped and killed by Federal cavalry near Bowling
Green, Va.
- The Confederate cabinet meets for the last time at Charlotte, N.C.
April 27
1861- The ports of North Carolina and Virginia are included in the blockade.
April 28
1862- At Nassau in the Bahamas, British Oreto arrives to be outfitted as
Confederate raider C.S.S. Florida.
April 29
1862- Halleck, taking over Grant's army, begins to advance on Beauregard's army at
Corinth.
1863- Maj. Gen. George Stoneman leads a Federal cavalry raid behind Lee's lines
in Virginia.
April 30
1863- After crossing the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers, Hooker concentrates
his Union forces at Chancellorsville, Va.
- Grant crosses the Mississippi River to Bruinsburg, Miss., south of Vicksburg.
1864- Steele, defeated by the Confederates at Jenkins Ferry, Ark., is forced to
withdraw to Little Rock.
