TIME LINE OF KEY EVENTS, 1860–1870

1860

May–September: Giuseppe Garibaldi and the Thousand conquer southern Italy

November 6: Abraham Lincoln elected president of the United States

December 20: South Carolina declares secession; Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas follow by early February

1861

January 11: Mexico’s Reform War ends with victory of Benito Juárez and republicans

February 4: Delegates of seceding states meet in Montgomery, Alabama, to create the Confederate States of America (CSA)

February 13: CSA approves foreign commissions to Washington and Europe

February 18: Jefferson Davis inaugurated as provisional CSA president for one year

March 2: US Congress passes Morrill Tariff

March 3: Czar Alexander II emancipates Russia’s serfs

March 4: Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural address defines secession as rebellion without cause

March 18: President Pedro Santana of Dominican Republic declares reannexation to Spain

April 1: Secretary of State William Henry Seward advises Lincoln to confront Spain and France

April 12: CSA attacks Fort Sumter

April 15: Lincoln calls for troops from all states; Henry Sanford, head of Union secret service, arrives in Europe

April 17: Virginia followed by Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina secede

April 19: Lincoln announces plans to blockade Southern ports

April 29: CSA European Commission—William Yancey, Pierre Rost, and Ambrose Dudley Mann—convenes in London

May 13: Charles Francis Adams, US minister to Britain, arrives in London; Britain declares neutrality, recognizing both sides as belligerents; France, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Portugal, Brazil, and Hawaii follow by August

June: Mary Louis Booth translates Agénor de Gasparin’s pro-Union Uprising of a Great People

July 19: President Benito Juárez suspends payment on Mexico’s foreign debt for two years

July 21: CSA routs Union at First Battle of Bull Run

September 8–9: Henry Sanford meets with Giuseppe Garibaldi at Caprera

September 14: Carl Schurz, US minister to Spain, urges Seward to adopt emancipation; John Bigelow, US consul general, arrives in Paris to promote public diplomacy

October 31: Tripartite Treaty of London: France, Spain, and Britain agree to invade Mexico

November: James Spence’s pro-CSA The American Union published in Britain

November 6: Jefferson Davis elected to six-year term as CSA president

November 8: CSA envoys John Slidell and James Mason abducted onboard British ship Trent

November 24: US special agents Thurlow Weed, Archbishop John Hughes, and Bishop Charles McIlvaine arrive in Europe and help defuse Trent crisis

December 4: Member of Parliament (MP) John Bright’s speech at Rochdale, England, urges support of Union

December 8: Tripartite Alliance invasion of Mexico begins with landing of Spanish fleet; British and French follow in early January

December 25: Lincoln and cabinet decide to release Slidell and Mason

1862

January: Carl Schurz meets privately with Lincoln to urge emancipation

January 29: Confederate envoys Slidell, Mason, and Henry Hotze arrive in London

February 22: Jefferson Davis inaugurated as CSA president for six-year term

March 17: Judah P. Benjamin appointed CSA secretary of state

April 9: Breakup of Tripartite Alliance in Mexico; British and Spanish withdraw troops

May 1: Hotze launches CSA journal the Index in London; New Orleans captured by Union

May 5: Mexican republican army thwarts French army at Puebla

June 29: Edwin De Leon, CSA special agent for public diplomacy, arrives in Europe

July 1: Seven Days Battle ends Union general George McClellan’s Virginia campaign

July 16: Slidell meets Napoleon III at Vichy to discuss cotton bribe and alliance

July 18: British Parliament debates motion by William Lindsay to recognize CSA

July 22: Lincoln announces emancipation plan to cabinet, decides to postpone

August: Gasparin’s America Before Europe published in New York

August 28–29: CSA routs Union at Second Battle of Bull Run and later advances into Maryland

August 29: Garibaldi wounded at Aspromonte during march on Rome

September 1: Theodore Canisius, US consul to Vienna, invites Garibaldi to lead Union army

September 14: British prime minister Palmerston initiates plan to intervene in American war

September 17: Battle of Antietam; CSA retreats from Maryland

September 22: Lincoln unveils Emancipation Proclamation

October 3: Garibaldi’s letter “To the English Nation” urges support of Union as Garibaldi demonstrations break out across Europe

October 6: Emancipation Proclamation publicized in Europe

October 7: William Gladstone’s Newcastle speech advocates recognition of CSA

October 18: Pope Pius IX issues public letter to US archbishops, calling for peace in America

October 23: Palmerston postpones British intervention plans

1863

January 1: Emancipation Proclamation enacted; public emancipation meetings in Britain follow

January 22: Polish uprising against Russia distracts Europe for months

March 19: CSA cotton bonds begin sales on European stock exchanges

May 19: French forces defeat Mexican republicans at second Battle of Puebla

June 7: French troops enter Mexico City

June 18: Slidell meets with Napoleon III a third time

June 30: MP John Roebuck’s motion to recognize CSA defeated in British Parliament

July 3–4: Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg; cotton bond prices begin steep decline

July 10: Mexico’s Council of Notables declares Empire of Mexico; crown to be offered to Archduke Maximilian of Austria

August 4: Benjamin instructs Mason to end CSA mission in Britain; Mason withdraws September 28; Benjamin later expels British consuls in Confederacy

September 4: Father John Bannon sent to Ireland as CSA special agent to thwart Union recruitment

September 25: Russian naval fleet welcomed in New York and later in San Francisco

November 16: Edwin De Leon’s intercepted letters published, lead to his dismissal

November 19: Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address

December 3: Pope Pius IX issues letter to “President” Jefferson Davis

1864

March 3: Bishop Patrick Lynch appointed CSA special envoy to the Vatican

April 4: US Congress passes resolution opposing monarchy in Mexico and refusing recognition of Maximilian and Empire of Mexico

April 10: Maximilian in Trieste accepts crown as emperor of Mexico

April 11–22: Garibaldi’s visit to London sets off enormous demonstrations of support

May 21: Emperor Maximilian and his wife, Charlotte, arrive in Mexico

September: Union general William T. Sherman captures Atlanta, later begins March to the Sea

November 8: Abraham Lincoln wins reelection against General George McClellan

December 8: Pope Pius IX issues “Syllabus of Errors,” denouncing liberalism and democracy

December 27: Duncan F. Kenner, CSA special agent, sent to Europe to offer emancipation in exchange for French or British support

1865

January 12: Francis P. Blair Sr. meets with Jefferson Davis to propose peace and united invasion of Mexico under Davis’s command

January 31: Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery passed by US Congress

February 3: Peace conference at Hampton Roads, Virginia, discusses reunion, invasion of Mexico, and future of slavery, but fails to end war

February 17: Sherman’s March arrives at Columbia, South Carolina

February 21: Kenner arrives in Europe and later meets with Slidell, Mason, and Mann

March 4: Lincoln’s second inaugural address; Slidell proposes emancipation to Napoleon III in exchange for French aid

March 14: James Mason meets with Palmerston in final plea for recognition

March 22: CSA general Camille de Polignac asks Napoleon III for French support of Louisiana

April 2: Jefferson Davis and CSA government abandon Richmond in flames

April 4: Lincoln visits Richmond

April 9: General Robert E. Lee surrenders CSA army at Appomattox

April 14: John Wilkes Booth assassinates Abraham Lincoln

April 26–June: Public demonstrations and letters of sympathy for Lincoln abroad

May: Grant sends General Philip Sheridan to Texas to intimidate French in Mexico

May 10: Jefferson Davis captured in Georgia and imprisoned

July 15: Spanish forces withdraw from Santo Domingo

September 15: Maximilian adopts the infant Agustín Iturbide as his heir to the Mexican throne

October 11: Morant Bay Rebellion, British massacre of blacks in Jamaica

1866

January 22: Napoleon III announces withdrawal of French troops in Mexico

June 14: Austro-Prussian War begins; Austria cedes land to Bismarck’s united Germany and cedes Venice to Italy

1867

March 12: French complete withdrawal of troops from Mexico

May: Hyde Park demonstrations pressure British Parliament to pass Reform Act of 1867

June 19: Maximilian executed by Mexican republicans

July 1: British North America Act creates the Dominion of Canada

October 18: Russia transfers Alaska to United States

1868

September 18: Spain’s Glorious Revolution begins; Queen Isabella II later deposed by republic

October 10: Cuba’s Ten Years’ War for independence and emancipation begins

1870

July 4: Spain passes law gradually ending slavery in Cuba and Puerto Rico

July 19: Franco-Prussian War begins

September 2: Napoleon III captured during war, deposed, later flees to England; France proclaims Third Republic

September 20: Rome, abandoned by French, is taken over by Italy; Papal States constricted to Vatican