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
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