February 9
February 9
Union general George Custer marries
Union General George Armstrong Custer marries Elizabeth Bacon in Monroe, Michigan, while the young cavalry officer is on leave. “Libbie,” as she was known to her family, was a tireless…
A Year In History: 1864
This Year in History:
1864
Discover what happened in this year with HISTORY’s summaries of major events, anniversaries, famous births and notable deaths.
February 20
February 20
Battle of Olustee
On February 20, 1864, at the Battle of Olustee, the largest conflict fought in Florida during the Civil War, a Confederate force under General Joseph Finegan decisively defeats an army…
February 27
February 27
Union inmates begin arriving at deadly Andersonville prison
On February 27, 1864, the first Union inmates begin arriving at Andersonville prison, which was still under construction in southern Georgia. Andersonville became synonymous with death as nearly a quarter…
March 10
March 10
Montana vigilantes hang Jack Slade
Local hell‑raiser Jack Slade is hanged in one of the more troubling incidents of frontier vigilantism. Slade stood out even among the many rabble‑rousers who inhabited the frontier‑mining town of…
March 10
March 10
President Lincoln signs Ulysses S. Grant’s commission to command the U.S. Army
On March 10, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signs a brief document officially promoting then‑Major General Ulysses S. Grant to the rank of lieutenant general of the U.S. Army, tasking the…
March 12
March 12
Red River Campaign begins
On March 12, 1864, one of the biggest military fiascos of the Civil War begins as a combined Union force of infantry and riverboats starts moving up the Red River…
April 12
April 12
Hundreds of Union soldiers killed in Fort Pillow Massacre
During the American Civil War, Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s Confederate raiders attack the isolated Union garrison at Fort Pillow, Tennessee, overlooking the Mississippi River. The fort, an important part…
May 8
May 8
General Lee’s army beats Grant’s Union troops to Spotsylvania
On May 8, 1864, Yankee troops arrive at Spotsylvania Court House, Virginia, to find the Rebels already there. After the Battle of the Wilderness (May 5‑6), Ulysses S. Grant’s Army…
May 11
May 11
Confederate Cavalry General J.E.B. Stuart is mortally wounded
A dismounted Union trooper fatally wounds J.E.B. Stuart, one of the most well‑known generals of the South, at the Battle of Yellow Tavern, just six miles north of Richmond, Virginia.…
May 19
May 19
President Lincoln proposes equal treatment of soldiers’ dependents
President Abraham Lincoln writes to anti‑slavery Congressional leader Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts on May 19, 1864, proposing that widows and children of soldiers should be given equal treatment regardless…
June 3
June 3
Union disaster at Cold Harbor
Union General Ulysses S. Grant makes what he later recognizes to be his greatest mistake by ordering a frontal assault on entrenched Confederates at Cold Harbor, Virginia. The result was…
June 15
June 15
Battle of Petersburg begins
During the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant’s Army of the Potomac and Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia collide for the last time as the first wave of Union…
June 19
June 19
USS Kearsarge sinks CSS Alabama
The most successful and feared Confederate commerce raider of the war, the CSS Alabama, sinks after a spectacular battle off the coast of France with the USS Kearsarge. Built in…
June 22
June 22
General Lee strikes back at Petersburg
On June 22, 1864, Union forces attempt to capture a railroad that had been supplying Petersburg, Virginia, from the south, and extend their lines to the Appomattox River. The Confederates…
June 24
June 24
Colorado governor orders Native Americans to Sand Creek reservation
Colorado Governor John Evans warns that all peaceful Native Americans in the region must report to the Sand Creek reservation or risk being attacked, creating the conditions that will lead…
June 25
June 25
Union begins tunneling toward Rebels at Petersburg
Pennsylvania troops begin digging a tunnel toward the Rebels at Petersburg, Virginia, in order to blow a hole in the Confederate lines and break the stalemate. The great campaign between…
July 22
July 22
Battle of Atlanta continues
Confederate General John Bell Hood continues to try to drive General William T. Sherman from the outskirts of Atlanta when he attacks the Yankees on Bald Hill. The attack failed,…
July 30
July 30
Union forces stopped at the Battle of the Crater
On July 30, 1864, at the Battle of the Crater, the Union’s ingenious attempt to break the Confederate lines at Petersburg, Virginia, by blowing up a tunnel that had been…
August 1
August 1
Philip Sheridan takes command of Army of the Shenandoah
Union General Ulysses S. Grant appoints General Philip Sheridan commander of the Army of the Shenandoah. Within a few months, Sheridan drove a Confederate force from the Shenandoah Valley and…
August 5
August 5
Union scores a victory at the Battle of Mobile Bay
On August 5, 1864, at the Battle of Mobile Bay, Union Admiral David Farragut leads his flotilla through the Confederate defenses at Mobile, Alabama, to seal one of the last…
