What Happened in December 1862

Historical Events

Battle of Interest

Dec 5 Battle of Coffeeville: Confederate forces halt Ulysses S. Grant's Mississippi invasion via Tennessee

Union General and US President Ulysses S. Grant

Lincoln Orders Santee Sioux Hanged

Dec 6 US President Abraham Lincoln orders hanging of 39 Santee Sioux Indians

Dec 7 Battle of Hartsville, TN
Dec 7 Battle of Prairie Grove, AR

Battle of Fredricksburg

Dec 11 Battle of Fredricksburg in Virginia begins between Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and the Union Army of the Potomac, commanded by Major General Ambrose Burnside

Union General, Politician and Industrialist Ambrose Burnside

Dec 12 Battle of Dumfries, Virginia
Dec 12 Naval Engagement at Yazoo River, MS (USS CAIRO torpedoed)
Dec 13 Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia (Marye's Heights)
Dec 14 Battle of Kinston, fought in Lenoir County, North Carolina begins (Goldsboro Expedition), Union victory (US Civil War)
Dec 16 Kingdom of Nepal accepts its constitution
Dec 17 General Ulysses S. Grant issues order #11, expelling Jews from Tennessee
Dec 18 Battle at Lexington, Tennessee (part of Forrest's Second Raid)
Dec 19 Skirmish at Jackson, Salem Church, Tennessee (80 casualties)
Dec 20 -Dec 20th] Battle of Kelly's Ford, VA
Dec 20 -Jan 3rd] Vicksburg campaign

Confederates Occupy Trenton, Kentucky

Dec 20 Confederate Army Brigadier General Nathan Bedford Forrest occupies Trenton, Kentucky (US Civil War)

Confederate General and KKK Grand Wizard Nathan Bedford Forrest

Dec 20 Confederate raid on Union supplies at Holly Springs, Mississippi
Dec 22 -Jan 2nd) Raid on Morgan's: Bardstown to Elizabethtown, KY

Jefferson Davis Labels Beast Butler a "Felon"

Dec 23 Union General Ben "Beast" Butler is proclaimed a "felon, outlaw & common enemy of mankind" by Jefferson Davis

President of the Confederate States of America Jefferson Davis

Dec 25 40,000 watch Union army men play baseball at Hilton Head, South Carolina
Dec 26 Largest mass execution in US history: 38 Dakota men were executed via hanging in the aftermath of the U.S.-Dakota War in Mankato, Minnesota [1]
Dec 26 US Civil War: Battle of Dumfries begins in Virginia
Dec 26 US Navy formally commissions 1st hospital ship, the USS Red Rover - a captured Confederate sidewheel barracks ship converted for the purpose - for service on the Mississippi [1] [2]
Dec 27 Battle of Chickasaw Bluffs, MS (Chickasaw Bayou)
Dec 27 Battle of Elizabethtown, Kentucky

Battle of Chichasaw Bayou

Dec 29 Battle of Chichasaw Bayou: confederate armies defeat General William T. Sherman

Dec 29 Bowling ball invented
Dec 31 -Jan 20th) Battle of Stone's River (Battle of Murfreesboro), Tennessee in US Civil War
Dec 31 President Abraham Lincoln signs act admitting West Virginia to the Union
Dec 31 Skirmish at Parker Cross Roads, Tennessee
Dec 31 Union ironclad ship "Monitor" sank off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina

Events in 1862

Famous Birthdays

Dec 3 Jules Renkin, Belgian politician (28th Prime Minister of Belgium 1931-32), born in Ixelles, Belgium (d. 1934)
Dec 7 Paul Adam, French writer (La Bataille d'Uhde), born in Paris, France (d. 1920)
Dec 8 Georges Feydeau, French playwright (La Dame de Chez Maxim's), born in Paris (d. 1921)
Dec 9 Karel Kovařovic, Czech harpist, conductor (Prague National Theatre, 1900-20), and composer (The Dogheads), born in Prague, Kingdom of Bohemia (now Czech Republic) (d. 1920)
Dec 14 John M. Acket, Dutch literary (Grammatic Conceptions) (d. 1933)
Dec 15 Jack 'The Nonpareil' Dempsey, Irish boxer (first holder of World Middleweight Championship 1886-90), born in Curran, County Kildare (d. 1895)
Dec 16 Eugene Demolder, Belgian writer (Sous la robe), born in Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, Belgium (d. 1919)

Connie Mack (1862-1956)

Dec 22 American Baseball Hall of Fame catcher, manager and owner (World Series 1910, 11, 13, 29, 30; most managerial wins, losses and games managed in MLB history; Philadelphia A's), born in East Brookfield, Massachusetts

Dec 23 Henri Pirenne, Belgian historian (History of Belgium) (d. 1935)
Dec 26 Alexander Amfiteatrov, Russian-Italian journalist, newspaper editor, novelist, and historian, born in Kaluga, Russia (d. 1923)

Born in 1862

Famous Deaths

Dec 7 Sylvester Churchill, US Union brigadier general, dies
Dec 13 Conrad Feger Jackson, US Union brigadier general, dies in Battle of Fredericksburg at 49
Dec 13 Maxcy Gregg, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies in Battle of Fredericksburg at 48
Dec 13 Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies in Battle of Fredericksburg at 39
Dec 14 George Dashiell Bayard, Union Brigadier General, dies at 27
Dec 18 Johnson Kelly Duncan, American architect and Confederate brig-general, dies at 35 of malarial fever
Dec 20 Robert Knox Scottish surgeon, anatomist and zoologist
Dec 24 Joseph Funk, early American composer, dies at 84
Dec 28 Joaquim Casimiro Jr., Portuguese composer, dies at 54
Dec 31 James Edward Rains, American lawyer and Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies in Battle of Stone's River at 29
Dec 31 Joshua Woodrow Sill, US Union brigadier general, dies in Battle of Stone's River at 31