1862:  
Action at Moore's Mill and skirmish at Cross Timben, Missouri

Skirmish near Humboldt, Tennessee

Railroads introduce the mail car, allowing mail to be sorted as a train travels  


1863:  
Skirmish at Boone Mill, North Carolina

Skirmish at Fayetteville, West Virginia

Skirmishes near High Grove and at Marshall, Missouri

Action at Richmond, Kentucky


1864:  
Battle of Ezra Church, Georgia:
    On this day, Confederates under General John Bell Hood make a third attempt to break General William T. Sherman's hold on Atlanta. Like the first two, this attack failed, destroying the Confederate Army of Tennessee's offensive capabilities.

Hood had replaced Joseph Johnston as commander of the Army of Tennessee on July 18, 1864, because Johnston had failed to keep Sherman away from Atlanta. Upon assuming command of the army, Hood quickly scrapped Johnston's defensive strategy and attacked Sherman, first on July 20 at Peachtree Creek, and then on July 22 at the Battle of Atlanta. Both failed, but that did not deter Hood from making another attempt to break the Union hold on the important Southern city.

When Sherman sent General Oliver O. Howard southeast of Atlanta to cut the Macon and Western Railroad, one of the remaining supply lines, Hood sent Stephen D. Lee's corps to block the move. Lee attacked at Ezra Church, but the battle did not go as planned for the Confederates. Instead of striking the Union flank, Lee's corps hit the Union center, where the Yankee troops were positioned behind barricades made from logs and pews taken from the church. Throughout the afternoon, Lee made several attacks on the Union lines. Each was turned back, and Lee was not able to get around the Union flank.

The battle was costly for an army that was already outnumbered. Lee lost 3,000 men to the Union's 630. More important, Hood lost his offensive capability. For the next month, he could do no more than sit in trenches around Atlanta and wait for Sherman to deal him the knockout blow.

Fugitive slave laws abolished

Skirmishes at Lithonia, Flat Rock Bridge, and near Campbellton, Georgia

Action at Four Mile Creek, Virginia

Skirmish at Scatterville, Aarkansas

Skirmish on the Big Creek, Missouri

Skirmish at Long's Mill, Tennessee


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