September 1
1862- Union Maj. Gen. Philip Kearny and Isaac I. Stevens are killed as Jackson
attacks Pope's forces at Chantilly, Va.
1864- Hood evacuates Atlanta after Sherman reaches Jonesboro, south of the city.
September 2
1862- Pope is replaced by McClellan, who takes over the defense of Washington.
- Kirby Smith occupies Lexington, Ky.
1863- Burnside occupies Knoxville.
1864- Hood establishes a Confederate defense line at Lovejoy's Station, south of
Jonesboro.
- Union forces under Gen. Sherman occupy Atlanta.
September 3
1864- In Charleston Harbor, Confederate and Union forces exchange captive
surgeons and chaplains.
September 4
1861- Confederate Maj. Gen. Leonidas Polk seizes Columbus, Ky., ending the
state's neutrality.
1863- Bragg retreats as Rosecrans crosses the Tennessee River in his advance
upon Chattanooga.
1864- Sherman orders civilians out of Atlanta.
- The famed Confederate raider and cavalry leader John Hunt Morgan is killed in
a Federal raid on Greeneville, Tenn.
September 5
1862- Lee crosses the Potomac into Maryland, opening his first invasion of the
North.
1863- Under pressure from the U.S., the British do not deliver two ironclads they
have been building for the Confederates.
September 6
1819- William Starke Rosecrans (USA) is born in Delaware County, Ohio.
1861- Union troops under Grant take Paducah, Ky.
September 7
1862- Lee reaches Frederick, Md.
1863- Fort Wagner, guarding Charleston, is occupied by Union troops.
1864- Sherman orders the civilians that still have not left Atlanta to evacuate the city
so that he might more easily feed and supply his army.
September 8
1863- Union Rear Adm. John A. Dahlgren's attack on Fort Sumter is repulsed.
- Confederates repulse an attack by Union gunboats and transports at Sabine
Pass, on the Texas-Louisiana border.
1864- McClellan accepts the Democratic Presidential nomination without endorsing
the peace platform.
September 9
1862- Lee splits his army and sends Jackson to capture Harpers Ferry, preparatory
to invading Pennsylvania.
1863- Federal troops enter Chattanooga after Bragg retreats into northern Georgia.
September 10
1836- Joseph (Fighting Joe) Wheeler (CSA) is born in Augusta, Ga.
1861- General Albert Sidney Johnston is given command of the Confederate armies
in the west.
1863- Union Maj. Gen. Frederick Steele seizes Little Rock, Ark.
September 11
1861- Lincoln orders Frémont to modify his Missouri slave and property confiscation
proclamation to conform to the Confiscation Act.
- Lee begins the 5-day Cheat Mountain (Va.) Campaign, which ends in a
Confederate withdrawal that dims Lee's reputation for some months.
September 12
1818- Richard Jordan Gatling, inventor of the first machine gun (Gatling gun), for use
in the Civil War, is born in Hertford County, N.C.
September 13
1862- McClellan finds a lost copy of Lee's orders, rapped around a cigar, revealing
the Confederate troop deployment.
1863- Southern cavalry seize 20 crewman of the U.S.S. Rattler while they attend
church at Rodney, Miss.
September 14
1862- McClellan breaks through the South Mountain passes at the Battles of
Crampton's Gap and South Mountain, forcing Lee to concentrate at
Sharpsburg, Md.
September 15
1862- Confederates under Jackson capture Harpers Ferry, taking about 12,000
prisoners.
September 16
1862- McClellan is in position at Antietem Creek near Sharpsburg; Lee gathers his
forces and forms lines.
September 17
1861- Judah P. Benjamin succeeds Leroy P. Walker as the Confederate Secretary
of War, and Thomas Bragg replaces Benjamin as Attorney General.
1862- McClellan repeatedly attacks Lee in the Battle of Antietem, but neither side
can claim a victory in the single bloodiest day of the war.
- Bragg captures Munfordville, Ky., astride Buell's communications with
Louisville.
1863- Rosecrans concentrates his dispersed troops near Chickamauga Creek in
northern Georgia.
September 18
1862- Lee retreats to Virginia in the night, ending his invasion threat.
1863- Longstreet's corps begins to arrive by rail from Virginia to reinforce Bragg.
September 19
1862- Grant sends Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans to defeat Confederate Maj.
Gen. Sterling Price at Iuka, Miss.
1863- The Battle of Chickamauga opens as the Federals left under Thomas absorbs
Confederate assaults.
1864- Sterling Price opens a Confederate raid on Missouri.
- Federal troops under Sheridan defeat Early's Confederates in the Third Battle
of Winchester, Va.
September 20
1861- Rebels under Sterling Price capture the Union garrison at Lexington, Mo.
1863- Longstreet breaks the Federal line at Chickamauga; Thomas holds enough for
Rosecrans' beaten army to escape to Chattanooga.
September 21
1863- Retreating from defeat at Chickamauga, the Federal army occupies a strong
defensive position in and around Chattanooga, Tenn.
September 22
1862- President Lincoln declares all slaves in rebellious states to be free as of
January 1, 1863 in his Emancipation Proclamation.
- Bragg reaches Bardstown, Ky., abandoning his drive on Louisville and
seeking a juncture with Kirby Smith.
1864- Sheridan routs Early at Fisher's Hill, Va.
- Frémont withdraws from the Presidential race.
September 23
1829- George Crook (USA) is born near Dayton, Ohio.
1863- Bragg occupies Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain to begin the
Confederate siege if Chattanooga.
September 24
1862- Fourteen Northern governors meet at Altoona, Pa., and approve
emancipation.
1863- 15,000 reinforcements under Hooker from the Army of the Potomac leave
Virginia for Chattanooga.
1864- Lincoln asks for Montgomery Blair's resignation as U.S. Postmaster General
and replaces him with William Dennison.
September 25
1864- Union troops under Sheridan force Jubal Early's Confederates retreat before
them as they advance toward Staunton and Waynesborough, Va.
September 26
1863- President Lincoln and others are distressed when the New York Post reveals
the movement of reinforcements to Chattanooga.
September 27
1809- Raphael Semmes, Confederate naval commander responsible for destruction
or capture of 64 Union ships, is born in Charles County, Md.
September 28
1863- Federal Gens. Alexander McCook and T.L. Crittenden are relieved of their
commands and ordered to a court of inquiry because of reasons due to the
Battle of Chickamauga.
1864- Hood crosses the Chattahoochee River to strike at Sherman's supply lines.
- Sherman sends Thomas to Nashville to contain Forrest in western
Tennessee.
September 29
1862- Buell reaches Louisville, Ky.
- Federal Brig. Gen. Jefferson Davis (no relation) shoots and mortally wounds
Brig. Gen. William "Bull" Nelson during a quarrel in a hotel in Louisville.
1864- In an attempted advance on Richmond, Grant captures Fort Harrison but is
repulsed at Fort Gilmer in the Battle of New Market Heights, Va.
September 30
1864- Lee unsuccessfully counterattacks Fort Harrison.
