1861:
Robert Anderson promoted to Brigadier General

Nathaniel Lyons [US] occupies Jefferson City, capital of Missouri

1862:
Battle of Drewry's Bluff

Battle of Proctor Creek
 
Engagement at Fort Darling, Virginia; Skirmish at Linden, Virginia

Skirmishes at Trenton's Bridge and Young's Cross Roads, North Carolina

Skirmish at Chalk Bluff, Arkansas

Skirmish near Butler, Missouri

Benjamin Butler issues Order Number 28, directing his troops to treat any woman who insults them as they would a woman "plying her advocation (a prostitute)." It was this order that led to his title, the Beast of New Orleans


1863:
A portion of the Tredegar Iron Works and a nearby flour mill burn.

Joe Johnston orders John Pemberton to break out of Grant's tightening noose. Pemberton refuses the order.
 
Skirmishes at Bolton Station and Edwards Station, Mississippi

Skirmish at Fort Smith, Arkansas

Skirmishes at Big Creek and Centre Creek, Missouri


1864:  
Battle of Resaca, Georgia--Day Two

Combat at Piney Branch Church, Virginia

Battle of New Market, Virginia
On this day, students from the Virginia Military Institute take part in the Battle of New Market, part of the multipronged Union offensive in the spring of 1864 designed to take Virginia out of the war. Central to this campaign was Ulysses S. Grant's epic struggle with Robert E. Lee around Richmond.

Union General Franz Sigel had been sent to apply pressure on a key agricultural region, the Shenandoah Valley. He marched south out of Winchester in early May to neutralize the valley, which was always a threat to the North. The Shenandoah was not only a breadbasket that supplied Southern armies, it also led to the Potomac north of Washington. The Confederates had used the valley very effectively in 1862, when Stonewall Jackson kept three Federal armies occupied while keeping pressure off of Richmond.

But the Confederates were hard pressed to offer any opposition to Sigel's 6,500 troops. Lee was struggling against Grant and was badly outnumbered. He instructed John Breckinridge to drive Sigel from the valley but could offer him little in the way of troops to do the job. Breckinridge mustered a force of regular troops and militia units and pulled together 5,300 men. They included 247 cadets from the nearby Virginia Military Institute, some of the boys just 15 years old.

On May 15, Breckinridge attacked Sigel's troops at New Market. Sigel fell back a half mile, reformed his lines, and began to shell the Confederate center. It was at this juncture that Breckinridge reluctantly sent the VMI cadets into battle. The young students were part of an attack that captured two Yankee guns. Nine of the cadets were killed and 48 were wounded, but Sigel suffered a humiliating defeat and began to withdraw from the valley.

The courage of the VMI cadets at the Battle of New Market became legendary, and the pressure was temporarily off of the Rebels in the Shenandoah Valley. Breckinridge was able to send part of his force east to reinforce Lee.



Primary sources:
Official Records of the War of the Rebellion
A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion ; by Frederick Dyer;
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865 by E. B. Long with Barbara Long;
National Archives Guide Index