1861

Confederates capture the St. Nicolas.  A Confederate band makes a daring capture of a commercial vessel on Chesapeake Bay. The plan was the brainchild of George Hollins, a veteran of the War of 1812. Hollins joined the navy at age 15, and had a long and distinguished career. A Maryland native, he was commander of a U.S. warship in the Mediterranean when hostilities erupted in 1861, and returned to New York and resigned his commission. After a brief stop in his hometown, Baltimore, Hollins offered his services to the Confederacy and received a commission on June 21, 1861.

Soon after, Hollins met up with Richard Thomas Zarvona, a Marylander, former West Point attendee, and adventurer who had fought with pirates in China and revolutionaries in Italy. They hatched a plan to capture the St. Nicolas and use it to marshal other Yankee ships into Confederate service. Zarvona went to Baltimore and recruited a band of pirates, who boarded the St. Nicholas as paying passengers on June 28. Using the name Madame La Force, Zarvona disguised himself as a flirtatious Frenchwoman. Hollins then boarded the St. Nicholas at its first stop.

The conspirators later retreated to the Frenchwoman's cabin, where they armed themselves and then burst out to capture the surprised crew. Hollins took control of the vessel and stopped on the Virginia bank of the Chesapeake to pick up a crew of Confederate soldiers. They planned to capture a Union gunboat, The Pawnee, but it was called away. Instead, the St. Nicholas and its pirate crew came upon a ship loaded with Brazilian coffee. Two more ships, carrying loads of ice and coal, soon fell to the St. Nicholas.

Though dashing and adventurous, the incident did little more than sting Northern sensitivities.  These daring exploits earned Hollins a quick promotion from captain to commodore. At the end of July, Hollins was sent to take control of a fleet at New Orleans, Louisiana.

1862

Farragut’s fleet successfully runs the batteries a Vicksburg, Mississippi, in the first attempt to take the city.  This action proved two points: A fleet could pass powerful land batteries without suffering excessive damage and it was going to take more than naval power to take Vicksburg.

Fighting continues between Union and Confederate forces during the Seven Days' campaign

Skirmish at Blackland, Mississippi

The first of a two day Federal operation in Johnson County, Missiouri

Federal evacuation of James Island, South Carolina.

Skirmish at Sparta, Tennessee

1863

At 7:00 in the morning, at Frederick, Maryland General George G. Meade received orders placing him in command of the Army of the Potomac. George Meade, who replaced General Hooker, was the 5th man to command the Army in less than a year.

Skirmish at Russellville, Kentucky

Skirmishing at Donaldsville, Louisiana.

Skirmish near Seneca and another at Rockville  Maryland

Day 41 in the Vicksburg, MS, siege.

Skirmish at Plymouth and Nichol‘s Mills, North Carolina.

Skirmish at Fountain Dale, Oyster Point, Columbia, and Wrightsville, Pennsylvania.  On this day Robert E Lee learned the Federals were north of the Potomac.  He ordered Longstreet, Hill, and Ewell to march toward Gettysburg and Cashtown.  Early entered York, Pennsylvania

In Georgia, Joe Johston’s men prepared new defensive positions along the Chattahoochee River, to the rear of the Kennesaw line.

Skirmish at Rover, Tennessee.

Skirmish on the Little River Turnpike, Virginia

1864

Skirmish at Tunnel Hill, Georgia.

Fighting at Howlett’s Bluff, Virginia

1865

The CSS Shenandoah stopped taking Federal whalers in the Bering Sea.

1874

The Freedmen's Bank, created to assist former slaves in the United States, closes. Customers of the bank lost $3 million.

References:
s]The Civil War Day by Day[/s], Philip Katcher
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865 by E. B. Long with Barbara Long
The Chronological Tracking of the American Civil War Per the Official Records of the War of Rebellion, by Ronald A Mosocco
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do
http://www.on-this-day.com/cgi-bin/otd/uscivilwarotd/uscivilwarotd.pl