1861

There was criticism directed at the War Department in Washington, DC, that it had not prevented Confederate batteries from being emplaced along the Potomac River

1862

Union and Confederate forces skirmish at the Chickahominy Creek and at Fair Oaks Station, Virginia.

Skirmishing at Simmons’ Bluff, South Carolina.

Skirmish at Battle Creek and another at Rankin’s Ferry in the vicinity of Jasper, Tennessee.

Skirmish along the Coldwater River, Mississippi

1863

Skirmish near Upperville, Haymarket, and Thoroughfare Gap, Virginia.

Skirmish at Frederick, Maryland.

In the second day of fighting, Confederate troops fails to dislodge a Union force at the Battle of LaFourche Crossing.  Skirmish at Brashear City, Louisiana..

Skirmish at Hudsonville, Mississippi, and along the Helena Road.  Day 34 in the Vicksburg, MS, siege.

Skirmish at Powder Springs Gap, Tennessee.

Skirmish on Dixon’s Island, South Carolina.

1864

Union General William T. Sherman sent Union General Andrew J. Smith on an expedition to destroy Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest and his cavalry. Smith left LaGrange, Tennessee, on this day.

Skirmishing at Noonday Creek, Georgia

Skirmish at White House and Tunstall’s Station, Virginia.  A Confederate flotilla bombarded the Union squadron on the James River, VA.  Skirmishing in the Shenandoah Valley at Salem and Catawba Mountain.

Union General Ulysses S. Grant's attempt to cut the Confederate's Weldon and Petersburg Railroad failed. The struggle for Petersburg began on June 15. Union General Ulysses S. Grant spent six weeks fighting his way around Richmond. His adversary, General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, had inflicted tremendous casualties on the Army of the Potomac. Most recently, at Cold Harbor, Grant ordered a disastrous attack on Rebel entrenchments and lost 7,000 men. Afterward, Grant swung south to capture the rail center of Petersburg, 23 miles from Richmond.

When the troops arrived, they found the Confederates already digging trenches. For four days, Grant tried to break through the lines. On June 18, Union losses were particularly heavy. After pausing to reconsider his tactics, Grant refrained from further frontal assaults.

Instead, Grant resumed the flanking movements he had followed throughout the campaign. He extended his left flank on June 21 to cut off the Weldon Railroad, which supplied Petersburg from the south. Part of the Union Second and Sixth Corps moved past the Jerusalem Plank Road, where they ran into Ambrose Powell Hill's Confederates. Hill's troops rolled up on the Union flank, inflicting nearly 3,000 casualties and capturing 1,700 prisoners. Hill provided breathing room for Lee's army, and the armies settled in for a long siege.

1865
Lewis E Parsons was named provisional governor of Alabama by President Johnson.