6 January 1863: Tuesday

Union - Military
Missouri
There is a skirmish along Linn Creek. There is also a skirmish at Fort Lawrence, Beaver Station (part of the raid by Confederate John S. Marmaduke.)

Alabama
A British steamer is seized Mobile by the blockaders - one of the numerous captures by the day-in, day out blockade of the Confederate coast.

Confederacy - Military
Tennessee
Confederates capture a Northern riverboat, Jacob Musselman, near Memphis.
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Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

5 January 1863: Monday

Union - Government
President Lincoln tenders the thanks of the country to General Rosecrans for his Tennessee victory.

Confederacy - Government
In Richmond, President Davis, being welcomes home from his trip out west, tells a serenading crowd that the Confederacy was the last hope for "the perpetuation of that system of government which our forefathers founded-the asylum of the oppressed and the home of true representative liberty." He continued: "Every crime which could characterize the course of demons has marked the course of the invader."

Confederacy
West Virginia
Confederate raid near Moorefield.

Union - Military
Virginia
General Burnside, pinned down in Fredericksburg, writes President Lincoln that despite the opinion of his subordinate officers he still thought a crossing of the Rapahannock should be attempted. Again he formally tendered his resignation,, "to relieve you from all embarrasment in my case."

A skirmish occurs at Cub Run.

Tennessee
Union troops enter Murfreesboro.

Skirmishes occur at Lytle's Creek, on the Manchester Pike, and on the Shelbyville Pike.


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Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

4 January 1863: Sunday

Union - Government
In Washington, General Halleck, ordered by the President, instructs General Grant to revoke General Order #11, which had expelled Jews from his department.

Union - Military
South Carolina
The USS Quaker City captures a blockade runner with important disptaches off the coast of Charleston.

Mississippi
On the Mississippi, Major General A McClernand, with the Federal Army of the Mississippi, including Sherman's corps, begins an unauthorized move up the Arkansas River with 30,000 troops and 50 transports and gunboats toward Arkansas Post or Fort Hindman.

Tennessee
There is skirmishing at Murfreesboro and on the Manchester Pike as Bragg continues to withdraw.

There is skirmishing at Monterey.

New Mexico Territory
Beginning in January and continuing into May, US forces conduct operations against Native Americans.



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Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

3 January 1863: Saturday

Union - Military
Tennessee
Two brigades of Union troops push forward near Murfreesboro in a mild attack on Southern lines near Stone's River.

Confederacy - Military
Tennessee
During the night, Bragg's Confederate Army of Tennessee, despite apparent victory in the first stages of the battle, withdraw from Murfreesboro toward tullahoma.

There are skirmishes at Somersville and Insane Asylum, Cox's Hill, or Blood's.

West Virginia
A Confederate attack on Moorfield fails.

Mississippi
There is a skirmish at Burnsfield.
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Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

2 January 1863: Battle of Murfreesboro

Union - Civilian
Salutes, celebrations and meetings follow the emancipation proclamation in many Northern cities.

Confederacy - Civilian
In Richmond, belt tightening and high prices are the order of the day.

Confederacy - Military
Tennessee
The main fighting at Murfreesboro was on the northeast side side of Stone's River. John C. Breckinridge's Confederates succeeded in taking a small hill, only to be driven off with great loss by Union guns and a counter charge. Again the armies of Bragg and Rosencrans paused on the battlefield, each expecting or hoping the other would withdraw.

Casualties
Union
1677 killed
7543 wounded
3686 missing
12,906 out of estimated 41,400 effectives

Confederates
1204 killed
7945 wounded
2500 missing
11,739 out of estimated effectives of 35,000

Both Nathan Bedford Forrest and and John Morgan complete their campaigns. Morgan recrosses the Cumberland River, Forrest recrosses the Tennessee at Clifton.

Arkansas
Confederate raider John s. Marmaduke skirmishes with Union troops at White Springs and Boston Mountain in his advance on Missouri which had started from Lewisburg on December 31.


Union - Military
Mississippi
North of Vicksburg on the Yazoo, Sherman gives up his hopeless drive against the bluffs and withdraws to the Mississippi, where his forces come under the orders of McClernand.

Missouri
Union troops reoccupy New Madrid.
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Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971

Jan 21-22: Charlotte, NC: Civil War action

JAN. 21-22 Kure Beach
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/12/30/2886106/nearby-notes.html

Civil War action on coast

The 174th anniversary of the Battle of Fort Fisher - the largest land-sea battle of the Civil War - will be marked at Fort Fisher, on the coast 20 miles south of Wilmington. The capture of the fort by federal soldiers forced the fall of the Confederacy's last major port in January 1865. Re-enactors in period costume will bring history to life throughout the day with Confederate artillery demonstrations, cannon and small arms firings. (Bring ear plugs.) Hours for the free program: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Jan. 21, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Jan 22. Details: 910-458-5538; www.fortfisher.nchistoricsites.org.

1 January 1862: Thursday - Emancipation Proclamation

Union - government
General Burnside consults with President Lincoln on the general's plans to launch another assault across the Rahannock. Burnside then wrote a frank, open, modest letter stating that officers and men lacked faith in Secretary of War Stanton, in Halleck, and in himself. Burnside pointed out that not a single grand division commander agreed with his plan and that in view of that he believed he should retire to private life, to "promote the public good."

Lincoln goaded Halleck into deciding on the military plan and this provoked a resignation from the General-in-Chief. However, both Halleck and Burnside ended up staying.

"I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free."

Thus read the final Emancipation Proclamation of Jan 1, putting into effect President Lincoln's preliminary proclamation of Sept 22, 1862. (Of course, the slaves wouldn't be free until Union troops took over Confederate states.)

At the end of the day, Lincoln hosted the traditional New Year's Day reception at the White House.

Union - Civilian
In Tremont Temple, Boston, people met in celebration of the news of the proclamation, in Norfolk, VA the black population marched through the town with a Union flag at their head.

Confederate - Civilian
South Carolina
At Charleston, a Robert Yeadon offers $10,000 reward for the capture and delivery of Benjamin Butler, dead or alive.

Confederacy - Military
Texas
Before dawn on the lowlands around Galveston, Confederate John B. Magruder with troops and improvised gunboats, attack the Union-held city and its flotilla. After about 4 hours the city surrenders. Harriet Lane, her top officers killed, was captured, and Westfield was blown up by its crew. Other Union ships escaped, but the blockade was temporarily disrupted.

Union - Military
Tennessee
At Murfreesboro, the armies of Bragg and Rosecrans were poised, awaiting renewal of the struggle along Stone's River. Some troops were shifted and Bragg made a slight indication of attack.

There are skirmishes at La Vergne, Stewart's Creek, and Clifton.

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Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971