1864

Col. John Chivington leads the Colorado volunteers against the Cheyenne and Arapaho in the Sand Creek Massacre, despite the peace agreement at Camp Weld.

Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest captures Fort Pillow in Tennessee. Only 14 Confederates were killed and 86 wounded, while the Union forces had 231 killed and 1,000 wounded; many of the Union losses were black soldiers.

Gen. Ulysses S. Grant is given command of all Union forces.

The Spotsylvania campaign leads to a day of fighting at the “bloody angle.”

With his direct assaults on Petersburg, Virginia, having failed, Union general Ulysses S. Grant prepares to besiege the city, whose defense is commanded by Confederate general Robert E. Lee.

A cavalry force under Confederate general Jubal Early reaches the outskirts of Washington, D. C., before deciding to withdraw.

The Confederate defenses at Petersburg, Virginia, are shattered by the huge explosion of a mine planted by Union engineers. Union assault troops fail to exploit the mine attack and are shot down mercilessly in the crater left by the explosion.

Adm. David Farragut leads a Union fleet to victory in the Battle of Mobile Bay and closes that port to the Confederacy.

Union troops begin their occupation of Atlanta after four weeks of siege.

Lincoln is reelected.

Union troops under Gen. William T. Sherman begin their destructive advance across Georgia, from Atlanta to the coast.

U. S. Congress passes the severe Reconstruction measure, the Wade-Davis Bill of 1864. It allows rebel states to return to the United States only after a majority of white male citizens take an oath of allegiance to the Union and after the adoption of a state constitution acceptable to the president and Congress.