1864
1864 (MDCCCLXIV) was a
leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar) of the
Gregorian calendar or a
leap year starting on Sunday of the 12-day-slower
Julian calendar.
January
*
January 21 -
Māori Wars: The
Tauranga Campaign starts.
February
*
February 1 - Danish-Prussian War (
Second war of Schleswig) begins. 57.000 Austrian and Prussian troops cross
Eider River to
Denmark.
*
February 27 -
American Civil War: The first Northern prisoners arrive at the
Confederate prison at
Andersonville, Georgia.
March
*
March 1-
Alejandro Mon Menéndez takes office as
Prime Minister of Spain*
March 10 - American Civil War: The
Red River Campaign begins as Union troops reach
Alexandria, Louisiana.
*
March 11 - A
reservoir near
Sheffield bursts; 250 dead
April
*
April 18 - Danish-Prussian War (
Second War of Schleswig):
Battle of Dybbøl. The Prussian army fielding 10,000 men defeats the Danish defending army of 9,200 at Dybbøl Mill after an artillery bombardment from April 7 to April 18.
*
April 22 - The
U.S. Congress passes the
Coinage Act of 1864 which mandates that the inscription "In God We Trust" be placed on all coins minted as
United States currency.
May
*
May 5 - American Civil War: The
Battle of the Wilderness begins in
Spotsylvania County, Virginia.
*
May 7 - American Civil War: The
Army of the Potomac, under General
Ulysses S. Grant, breaks off from the
Battle of the Wilderness and moves southwards.
*
May 11 - American Civil War:
Battle of Yellow Tavern - Confederate General
JEB Stuart is mortally wounded at
Yellow Tavern, Virginia.
*
May 12 - American Civil War:
Battle of Spotsylvania Court House: The "Bloody Angle" - thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers die.
*
May 13 - American Civil War:
Battle of Resaca - the
battle begins with Union General
Sherman fighting toward
Atlanta.
*
May 15 - American Civil War:
Battle of New Market,
Virginia - Students from the
Virginia Military Institute fight alongside the Confederate Army to force Union General
Franz Sigel out of the
Shenandoah Valley.
*
May 18 -
Civil War gold hoax -
New York World and the
New York Journal of Commerce publish a fake proclamation that president
Abraham Lincoln has issued a draft of 400,000 more soldiers
*
May 20 - American Civil War:
Battle of Ware Bottom Church - In the Virginia
Bermuda Hundred Campaign, 10,000 troops fight in this Confederate victory
*
May 26 -
Montana is organized as a
United States territory.
June
*
June 5 - American Civil War:
Battle of Piedmont - Union forces under General
David Hunter defeat a Confederate army at
Piedmont, West Virginia, taking nearly 1,000 prisoners.
*
June 10 - American Civil War:
Battle of Brice's Crossroads - Confederate troops under
Nathan Bedford Forrest defeat a much larger Union force led by General
Samuel D. Sturgis in
Mississippi.
*
June 12 - American Civil War:
Battle of Cold Harbor: - General Ulysses S. Grant pulls his troops from their positions at
Cold Harbor, Virginia and moves south.
*
June 15 -
Arlington National Cemetery is established when 200 acres (0.8 km²) of the grounds of Robert E. Lee's home
Arlington House are officially set-aside as a military
cemetery by U.S. Secretary of War
Edwin M. Stanton.
*June 15 - American Civil War:
Battle of Petersburg begins - Union forces under General Grant and troops led by Confederate General
Robert E. Lee battle for the last time.
*
June 21 -
Māori Wars: The
Tauranga Campaign ends.
July
*
July 18 - President Lincoln issues a true proclamation of conscription of 500.000 men for the US Civil War
*
July 20 - American Civil War:
Battle of Peachtree Creek - Near
Atlanta, Georgia, Confederate forces led by General
John Bell Hood unsuccessfully attack Union troops under General
William T. Sherman.
*
July 22 - American Civil War:
Battle of Atlanta - Outside of Atlanta, Georgia, Confederate General Hood leads an unsuccessful attack on Union troops under General Sherman on Bald Hill.
*
July 24 - American Civil War:
Battle of Kernstown - Confederate General
Jubal Early defeats Union troops led by General
George Crook in an effort to keep the Yankees out of the Shenandoah Valley.
*
July 28 - American Civil War:
Battle of Ezra Church begins - Confederate troops led by General Hood make a third unsuccessful attempt to drive Union forces under General Sherman from Atlanta, Georgia.
*
July 29 - American Civil War: Confederate spy
Belle Boyd is arrested by Union troops and detained at the
Old Capitol Prison in
Washington, DC.
*
July 30 - American Civil War:
Battle of the Crater - Union forces attempt to break Confederate lines by exploding a large bomb under their trenches.
August
*
August 1 - foundation of
Elgin Watch Company in
Elgin, Illinois*
August 5 - American Civil War:
Battle of Mobile Bay begins - At
Mobile Bay near
Mobile, Alabama, Admiral
David Farragut leads a Union flotilla through Confederate defenses and seals one of the last major Southern ports.
*
August 18 - American Civil War:
Battle of Globe Tavern - Forces under Union General
Ulysses S. Grant try to cut a vital Confederate supply-line into
Petersburg, Virginia, by attacking the
Weldon Railroad, forcing the Confederates to use wagons.
*
August 22 -
International Red Cross founded in
Geneva, Switzerland.
September
*
September 1 - American Civil War: Confederate General Hood evacuates Atlanta after a four month siege mounted by Union General Sherman.
* September 1 -
8 - Delegates from the Canadian colonies meet at the
Charlottetown Conference to discuss
Canadian Confederation.
*
September 2 - American Civil War: Union forces under General Sherman enter Atlanta a day after the Confederate defenders fled the city.
*
September 7 - American Civil War: Atlanta, Georgia is evacuated on orders of Union General William Tecumseh Sherman.
October
*
October 2 - American Civil War:
Battle of Saltville - Union forces attack
Saltville, Virginia but are defeated by Confederate troops.
*
October 5 –
Cyclone kills 70.000 in
Calcutta,
India*
October 9 - American Civil War:
Battle of Tom's Brook - Union cavalrymen in the Shenandoah Valley defeat Confederate forces at
Tom's Brook, Virginia.
*
October 28 - American Civil War:
Second Battle of Fair Oaks ends - Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant withdraw from
Fair Oaks, Virginia, after failing to breach the Confederate defenses around
Richmond, Virginia.
*
October 30 -
Second war of Schleswig concluded.
Denmark renounces all claim to
Schleswig,
Holstein and
Lauenburg, which come under
Prussian and
Austrian administration.
*
October 30 -
Helena, Montana is founded after four
prospectors discover
gold at "Last Chance Gulch."
*
October 31 -
Nevada is admitted as the 36th
U.S. stateNovember
*
November 4 - American Civil War:
Battle of Johnsonville - At
Johnsonville, Tennessee, troops under the command of Confederate General
Nathan Bedford Forrest bombard a Union supply base with artillery and destroy millions of dollars in materiel.
*
November 8 -
U.S. presidential election, 1864:
Abraham Lincoln is reelected in an overwhelming victory over
George McClellan.
*
November 15 - American Civil War:
Sherman's March to the Sea begins - Union General Sherman burns Atlanta and starts to move south, destroying everything in his path in order to punish the Confederates for starting the war.
*
November 22 - American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea: Confederate General John Bell Hood invades
Tennessee in an unsuccessful attempt to draw Union General Sherman from Georgia.
*
November 29 -
Indian Wars:
Sand Creek Massacre -
Colorado volunteers led by Colonel
John Chivington massacre at least 400
Cheyenne and
Arapahoe noncombatants at
Sand Creek, Colorado (where they had been given permission to camp).
*
November 30 - American Civil War:
Battle of Franklin - The
Army of Tennessee led by General Hood mounts a dramatically unsuccessful frontal assault on Union positions around
Franklin, Tennessee (Hood lost six generals and almost a third of his troops).
December
*
December 4 - American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea - At
Waynesboro, Georgia, forces under Union General
Judson Kilpatrick prevent troops led by Confederate General
Joseph Wheeler from interfering with Union General Sherman's campaign of destroying a wide swath of the South on his march to Savannah, GA (Union forces did suffer more than three times the casualties as the Confederates, however).
*
December 15-16 - American Civil War: Union forces decisively defeat the Confederate Army of Tennessee at the
Battle of NashvilleDate unknown
* Imperial forces assault the
Taiping capital of
Nanking in the last great battle of the civil war.
*
James Clerk Maxwell discovers
microwaves
*
First Geneva Convention*
Danevirke destroyed
*
Syllabus errorum:
Pope Pius IX condemns theological liberalism as an error and claims for the supremacy of Roman Catholic Church authority over the civil society. He also condemns
rationalism and
socialism*
Russia completes its conquest of the
North Caucasus, annexing
Abkhazia and
Circassia and expelling many of the Abkhazians and all of the
Ubykhs
*
Haiti declares independence
*
Brazil invades
Uruguay in support of
Venancio Flores.
Paraguay attacks Brazil.
*
John Wisden publishes first edition of
Wisden Cricketer's Almanack. It goes on to become the major annual cricket publication.
*
Asa Mercer travels from
Seattle to the US East Coast and recruits 11 "
Mercer Girls", potential wives for men on the West Coast
*
January 1 -
Alfred Stieglitz, American photographer (d.
1946)
*
January 8 -
Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence (d.
1892)
*
January 13 -
Wilhelm Wien, German physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1928)
*
January 24 -
Marguerite Durand, French actress, journalist, and feminist leader (d.
1936)
*
February 7 -
Arthur Collins, American Singer who recorded many early songs.(d.
1933)
*
March 13 -
Alexej von Jawlensky, Russian impressionist painter (d.
1941)
*
March 14 -
Casey Jones, American railway engineer (d.
1900)
*
March 15 -
Johan Halvorsen, Norwegian composer (d.
1935)
*
March 19 -
Charles Marion Russell, American artist (d.
1926)
*
April 21 -
Max Weber, German sociologist (d.
1920)
*
May 4 -
Marie Booth, the third daughter of
William and
Catherine Booth (d.
1937)
*
May 10 -
Léon Gaumont, French film pioneer (d.
1946)
*
May 15 -
Vilhelm Hammershøi, Danish painter (d.
1916)
*
June 3 -
Ransom E. Olds, automotive pioneer (d.
1950)
*
June 11 -
Richard Strauss, German composer (d.
1949)
*
June 25 -
Walther Nernst, German chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1941)
*
July 11 -
Petar Danov, Bulgarian spiritual teacher (d.
1944)
*
July 13 -
John Jacob Astor IV, American businessman and inventor (d.
1912)
*
July 20 -
Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish writer,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1931)
*
August 9 -
Roman Dmowski, Polish politician (d.
1939)
*
September 14 -
Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, English politician and diplomat, recipient of the
Nobel Peace Prize (d.
1958)
*
October 25 -
Alexander Gretchaninov, Russian composer (d.
1956)
*
November 11 -
Alfred Hermann Fried, Austrian writer and pacifist, recipient of the
Nobel Peace Prize (d.
1921)
*
November 23 -
Henry Bourne Joy, American business leader (d.
1936)
*
November 24 -
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, French painter (d.
1901)
*
November 26 -
Edward Higgins, the 3rd General of
The Salvation Army (d.
1947)
*
December 6 -
William S. Hart, American film actor (d.
1946)
*
December 12 -
Paul Elmer More, American critic and essayist (d.
1937)
*
Cosmo Lang,
Archbishop of Canterbury (d.
1945)
Date unknown
*
Bishop James Cannon, Jr., American religious and
temperance movement leader (d.
1944)
*
January 13 -
Stephen Foster, American composer (b.
1826)
*
May 2 -
Giacomo Meyerbeer, German composer (b.
1791)
*
May 19 -
Nathaniel Hawthorne, American author (b.
1804)
*
June 1 -
Hong Xiuquan, Chinese rebel (b.
1812)
*
September 3 -
Emil Nobel, younger brother of
Alfred Nobel (killed in an explosion)
*
October 12 -
Roger Taney, United States Supreme Court Justice (b.
1777)
*
November 6 -
Tuanku Imam Bonjol, Indonesian religious and military leader (b.
1772)
*
December 8 -
George Boole, English mathematician and philosopher (b. Nov. 2
1815)
