| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| January 1 | The Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slavesonlyin the rebel states, did not apply to the Border States and their 300,000 slaves. In England, the emancipation was highly regarded and celebrated, which made any possible recognition of the Confederacy by the British, politically impossible. |
| January 4 | General Ulysses S. Grant is ordered to repeal his General Order No. 11, which had expelled Jews from his area of operations. |
| January 25 | The first black regiment from the North is the 54th Massachusetts Volunteers. The Confederate Congress calls black troops and their commanders criminals. Black prisoners of war are effectively sentenced to death or enslavement if captured. |
| March 3 | Lincoln signs the first Conscription Act. Enrollment of males between the ages of twenty and forty-five is mandatory, although hired substitutes or payments of $300 can be used for an exemption. |
| May 1-4 | Battle of Chancellorsville. Although a major Confederate victory, the Confederacy loses one of its most effective commanders when Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson is accidentally killed by Confederate troops. |
| July 1-3 | Battle of Gettysburg. This battle was the one that in the end, turned the tide against the Confederacy. The combined casualties are more than fifty thousand dead and wounded. |
| July 13-16> | Draft Riots. A violent reaction to the Conscription Act as mobs rioted in such cities as Boston and New York. The worst of the riots occurred in New York City, where mostly Irish workingmen attacked and lynched blacks. Federal troops had to come from Gettysburg to stop the violence and restore order. |
| July 18 | As depicted in the movie Glory, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteers assault Fort Wagner in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. |
| October 3 | President Lincoln proclaims that the last Thursday in November will be set aside as a national day of Thanksgiving. |
| November 19 | The Gettysburg Address is delivered by President Lincoln. |
| December 8 | President Lincoln offers amnesty to Confederates who will take an oath of allegiance in a message that was delivered to Congress. |
| December 12 | The Confederate government in Richmond orders that supplies coming from the North to feed Union prisoners are to be stopped. |