January 1
1863- Final Emancipation Proclamation is issued by Pres. Lincoln.
January 2
1861- South Carolina troops seize old Fort Johnson in Charleston Harbor.
1863- Bragg renews his attacks on Rosecrans at the Battle of Murfreesboro (Stone
River) but is beaten off.
January 3
1861- Georgia state troops seize Fort Pulaski before Federal troops can occupy it.
1863- Bragg withdraws from Murfreesboro despite a tactical victory.
January 4
1861- Alabama takes over the U.S. arsenal at Mount Vernon.
1864- George Davis replaces Thomas Watts as Confederate Attorney General.
January 5
1861- Merchant vessel Star of the West leaves New York for Fort Sumter with
supplies and 250 troops.
January 6
1865- Gen. Grant asks Pres. Lincoln to remove Gen. Butler from command of the
Army of the James.
January 7
1863- Three blockade-runners successfully break through the Federal cordon and
arrive at Charleston, S.C.
January 8
1861- Secretary of the Interior Jacob Thompson of Mississippi resigns.
1863- John P. Usher succeeds Caleb B. Smith as U.S. Secretary of the Interior.
January 9
1861- Mississippi becomes the second state to secede from the Union.
- South Carolina gunfire prevents the Star of the West from entering Charleston
Harbor.
January 10
1861- Florida becomes the third state to secede from the Union.
January 11
1861- Alabama secedes from the Union becoming the fourth state to secede.
- Secretary of the Treasury Philip F. Thomas of Maryland resigns, completing
the Southern withdrawal from Buchanan's cabinet.
1862- Simon Cameron resigns as U.S. Secretary of War, to be replaced by Edwin
M. Stanton.
1863- Federals capture Fort Hindman on the Arkansas River.
January 12
1863- Third session of the First Confederate Congress gathers at Richmond to hear
Pres. Davis speak on the State of the Confederacy.
January 13
1863- Federal officials formally authorize the raising of Negro roops for the South
Carolina Volunteer Infantry.
January 14
1861- Louisiana state troops seize Fort Pike near New Orleans.
January 15
1862- U.S. Senate confirms the appointment of Edwin M. Stanton as Secretary of
War.
1865- Fort Fisher falls to Union Maj. Gen. A.H. Terry, thus closing Wilmington,
N.C., the last major Confederate port.
- Hood is relieved of command of the Army of Tennessee at his own request.
January 16
1861- Arkansas legislature completes a bill calling for referendum on secession.
January 17
1861- The Crittenden Compromise, proposing several amendments to the
Constitution in order to save the Union, is killed in the U.S. Senate.
January 18
1862- The Confederate Territory of Arizona is formed.
January 19
1807- Robert Edward Lee (CSA) is born in Stratford, Va.
1861- Georgia secedes from the Union.
- Virginia proposes a national peace conference.
1862- Brig. Gen. George Thomas defeats the Confederates at Mill Springs (Logan's
Cross Roads), securing Union control of eastern Kentucky.
January 20
1861- Ship Island, in the Gulf of Mississippi, is taken over by secessionists.
January 21
1824- Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson (CSA) is born in Clarksburg, Va.
1861- Five more Southerners, including Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, resign from
the U.S. Senate.
January 22
1864- Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans is named commander of the Federal
Department of the Missouri.
January 23
1863- Burnside's Federal army pulls back to Fredericksburg, ending its famed "mud
march."
January 24
1861- Georgia state troops take over the U.S. arsenal at Augusta.
January 25
1825- George Edward Pickett (CSA) is born in Richmond, Va.
January 26
1861- Louisiana becomes the sixth state to secede from the Union.
1863- Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker succeeds Burnside as commander of the Army of
the Potomac.
January 27
1862- Pres. Lincoln issues General War Order No. 1, ordering Union forces to
advance.
January 28
1863- A mass meeting in St. Louis ratifies the Emancipation Proclamation.
January 29
1861- Kansas is admitted to the Union as the 34th state.
January 30
1816- Nathaniel Prentiss Banks (USA) is born in Waltham, Mass.
January 31
1865- Gen. Robert E. Lee is appointed General-in-Chief of the Confederate Armies.
- The U.S. Congress submits to the states the Thirteenth Amendment,
abolishing slavery.
