1862

Events

January

• January 1 - The United Kingdom annexes Lagos Island, in modern-day Nigeria.
• January 6 - French intervention in Mexico: French, Spanish and British forces arrive in Veracruz, Mexico.
• January 16 - Hartley Colliery disaster in north-east England: 204 men are trapped and die underground when the only shaft becomes blocked.
• January 30 - American Civil War: The first U.S. ironclad warship,, is launched in Brooklyn.
• January 31 - Alvan Graham Clark makes the first observation of Sirius B, a white dwarf star, through an eighteen-inch telescope at Northwestern University in Illinois.

February

• February 1 - American Civil War: Julia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic" is published for the first time in the Atlantic Monthly.
• February 2 - The first railway is opened in New Zealand, by the Dun Mountain Copper Mining Company.
• American Civil War:
• * February 6 - General Ulysses S. Grant gives the Union Army its first victory of the war, by capturing Fort Henry, Tennessee.
• * February 11-16 - Battle of Fort Donelson - General Ulysses S. Grant attacks Fort Donelson, Tennessee, capturing it on the last day.
• * February 21 - Battle of Valverde - Confederate forces defeat Union troops near Fort Craig in New Mexico Territory:
• * February 22 - Jefferson Davis is officially inaugurated in Richmond, Virginia, to a six-year term as president of the Confederate States.

  March

• March 6 - An ammunition warehouse explosion in San Andres Chalchicomula, Mexico, kills between 1,400 and 2,280 during the Second French intervention in Mexico.
• American Civil War:
• * March 7 - Battle of Pea Ridge - The Confederates are shut out of Missouri.
• * March 8 - Ironclad is launched at Hampton Roads, Virginia; the Battle of Hampton Roads starts the same day.
• March 13
• * American Civil War: The U.S. federal government forbids all Union army officers from returning fugitive slaves, thus effectively annulling the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and setting the stage for the Emancipation Proclamation.
• * A smallpox epidemic in San Francisco spreads to British Columbia.
• March 17 - The first railway line in Finland, between the cities of Helsinki and Hämeenlinna, is officially opened.
• March 26-28 - American Civil War: Battle of Glorieta Pass - In New Mexico, Union forces succeed in stopping the Confederate invasion of New Mexico Territory.
• March 31 - Victor Hugo's epic French historical novel Les Misérables begins publication in Brussels.

  April

• April 1 - Second French intervention in Mexico: The Spanish and the British ended their alliance with France.
• American Civil War:
• * April 5 - Battle of Yorktown - The battle begins when Union Army forces under General George B. McClellan close in on the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.
• * April 6-7- Battle of Shiloh - The Union Army, under General Ulysses S. Grant, defeats the Confederates near Shiloh, Tennessee.
• * April 12 - Great Locomotive Chase - Union volunteers steal Confederate steam railroad locomotive The General in an attempt to sabotage the rail network.
• April 13 - The government of Vietnam is forced to cede the territories of Biên Hòa, Gia Định and Định Tường to France.
• April 22 - Global financial group UBS is founded in Switzerland as the Bank in Winterthur.
• American Civil War:
• * April 25 - Capture of New Orleans - Forces under Union Admiral David Farragut occupy the Confederate city of New Orleans, securing access to the Mississippi River.
• * April 26 - Siege of Fort Macon - The besieged Confederate garrison at Fort Macon, North Carolina surrenders.

  May

• May 1-November 1 - The 1862 International Exhibition is held at South Kensington in London; it is particularly noteworthy for an exhibit from Japan, influential in the development of Anglo-Japanese style.
• May 2 - The California State Normal School is created by an Act of the California legislature.
• May 5 - Second French intervention in Mexico: Battle of Puebla - Mexican General Ignacio Zaragoza defeats the French Army; commemorated each year as Cinco de Mayo.
• May 11 - American Civil War: Ironclad is scuttled in the James River northwest of Norfolk, Virginia.
• May 15 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs a bill into law creating the U.S. Bureau of Agriculture.
• May 20 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act into law.
• May 24 - Westminster Bridge is opened across the Thames in London. This new iron bridge, designed by Thomas Page, replaces the previous stone one.

  June

• American Civil War:
• * June 1 - Battle of Fair Oaks - Both sides claim victory.
• * June 4 - Confederate troops evacuate Fort Pillow on the Mississippi River, leaving the way clear for Union Army troops to capture Memphis, Tennessee.
• June 5 - Treaty of Saigon: Emperor Tự Đức of the Nguyễn dynasty in Vietnam cedes Saigon, Côn Sơn Island and three southern provinces of what is to become known as French Cochinchina to become part of the French colonial empire. Guerilla leader Trương Định refuses to recognize the treaty.
• American Civil War:
• * June 6 - First Battle of Memphis - Union Army troops capture Memphis, Tennessee, from the Confederate States.
• * June 8 - Battle of Cross Keys - Confederate troops under General Stonewall Jackson save the Army of Northern Virginia from a Union Army attack on the James Peninsula that is led by General George B. McClellan.
• June 12 - John Winter Robinson, the Secretary of State of Kansas, is convicted and removed from office as the result of a bond scandal, becoming the first state executive official to be impeached and removed from office in American history.
• June 26 - American Civil War: Battle of Mechanicsville - Confederate General Robert E. Lee defeats the troops of General George B. McClellan in the first of the Seven Days Battles.

  July

• July 1
• * The Bureau of Internal Revenue, the forerunner of the Internal Revenue Service, is established in the United States.
• * Princess Alice, the second daughter of Queen Victoria, marries Prince Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine.
• * U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs into law the Pacific Railroad Acts, authorizing construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad.
• * The Russian State Library is founded, as The Library of the Moscow Public Museum.
• July 2 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the Morrill Land-Grant Act into law, creating a system of land-grant colleges, to teach agricultural and mechanical sciences across the United States.
• July 4 - Charles Dodgson extemporises the story that becomes Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, for ten-year-old Alice Liddell and her sisters, on a rowboat trip on The Isis from Oxford to Godstow.
• July 16 - American Civil War: David Farragut becomes the first rear admiral in the U.S. Navy.
• July 18 - Dent Blanche, one of the highest summits in the Alps, is first ascended.
• July 23 - American Civil War: Henry Halleck takes command of the Union Army.

  August

• American Civil War:
• * August 5 - Battle of Baton Rouge - Along the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Confederate troops drive Union forces back into the city.
• * August 6 - Confederate ironclad is scuttled on the Mississippi River after suffering damage in a battle with, near Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
• * August 9 - Battle of Cedar Mountain - Confederate General Stonewall Jackson narrowly defeats Union forces under General John Pope at Cedar Mountain, Virginia.
• August 14 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln meets with a group of prominent African-Americans, the first time an American President has done so. He suggests that Black people should migrate to Africa or to Central America, but this advice is rejected.
• August 17 - The Dakota War of 1862 begins in Minnesota, as Dakota Sioux attack white settlements along the Minnesota River. They are overwhelmed by the U.S. Army six weeks later.
• August 19
• * Dakota War of 1862: During an uprising in Minnesota, Dakota warriors decide not to attack heavily defended Fort Ridgely and instead turn to the settlement of New Ulm, killing white settlers along the way.
• * Horace Greeley publishes an editorial, "The Prayer of Twenty Millions", in the New York Tribune, in which he urges U.S. President Abraham Lincoln to make abolition of slavery an official aim of the Union war effort.
• August 21 - The Vienna Stadtpark opens its gates.
• American Civil War:
• * August 28-30 - Second Battle of Bull Run - Confederate forces inflict a crushing defeat on Union General John Pope.
• * August 29-30 - Battle of Richmond, Kentucky - Confederate forces, led by General Edmund Kirby Smith, inflict a crushing defeat on Union General William "Bull" Nelson.

  September

• American Civil War:
• * September 1 - Battle of Chantilly - Confederate General Robert E. Lee leads his forces in an attack on retreating Union troops in Chantilly, Virginia, driving them away.
• * September 2 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln restores Union General George B. McClellan to full command, after General John Pope's disastrous defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run.
• * September 5 - In the Confederacy's first invasion of the North, General Robert E. Lee leads 55,000 men of the Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac River at White's Ford near Leesburg, Virginia, into Maryland.
• September 10 - Francisco Solano López is appointed second President of Paraguay.
• American Civil War:
• September 17 - American Civil War:
• * Battle of Antietam: Union forces strategically defeat Confederate troops at Sharpsburg, Maryland, in the bloodiest day in U.S. history, with over 22,000 casualties.
• * The Allegheny Arsenal explosion results in the single largest civilian disaster during the war, with 78 workers – mostly young women – being killed.
• September 19 - Battle of Iuka - Union troops under Major General William Rosecrans defeat a Confederate force commanded by Major General Sterling Price at Iuka, Mississippi.
• September 22
• * Otto von Bismarck becomes Minister President of Prussia, following refusal by the country's Landtag to accept the military budget.
• * American Civil War: The preliminary announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation is made by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln: From January 1, 1863, slaves in the Confederate States will be considered free.
• September 26 - Johann II, Prince of Liechtenstein signs into law the 1862 Constitution of Liechtenstein.
• September 29 - New Prussian prime minister Otto von Bismarck delivers his Blood and Iron speech to the Prussian Landtag.