What Happened in March 1863

Historical Events

Mar 3 Abraham Lincoln approves charter for National Academy of Sciences

Mar 3 Congress authorizes a US mint at Carson City, Nevada; coins identified with mint mark 'CC'
Mar 3 Federal ironclad ships bombard Fort McAllister, Georgia
Mar 3 Free city delivery replaces zone postage; 449 letter carriers hired
Mar 3 Gold certificates (currency) authorized by US Congress
Mar 3 Idaho Territory incorporated from parts of area split from Dakota, Nebraska, and Washington territories; now consists of states of Idaho. Montana, and most of Wyoming

Mar 3 US Congress authorizes track width of 4'8½" for Union Pacific Railroad

Mar 4 Battle of Thompson's Station, Tennessee
Mar 4 Territory of Idaho established
Mar 11 25th Grand National: George Stevens wins his 2nd GN aboard 4/1 Emblem; winning mare's full sister Emblematic wins the following year
Mar 17 Battle of Kelly's Ford, Virginia with 211 causalities
Mar 19 Confederate cruiser SS Georgiana destroyed on her maiden voyage with a cargo of munitions, and medicines then valued over $1,000,000. Wreck discovered exactly 102 years later by teenage diver and pioneer underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence.
Mar 21 Naval Engagement at Havana, Cuba: USS Henrick Hudson vs Confederate blockade runner Wild Pigeon

Mar 25 1st US Army Medal of Honor awarded to six army soldiers by US Secretary of War Edwin Stanton in Washington

Mar 27 American Confederate President Jefferson Davis calls for a day of fasting & prayer

Mar 30 Danish prince Wilhelm Georg of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg chosen as king George of Greece
Mar 31 Battle of Grand Gulf, Mississippi and Dinwiddie Court House, Virginia

Mar 1 Alexander Golovin, Russian painter and stage designer, born in Moscow, Russian Empire (d. 1930)
Mar 3 Arthur Machen, Welsh author (The Great God Pan), born in Caerleon, Monmouthshire, Wales (d. 1947)
Mar 4 John Henry Wigmore, American jurist and expert in the law of evidence (d. 1943)
Mar 4 Reginald Innes Pocock, British zoologist (d. 1947)
Mar 10 E J Ratcliffe [Edward], British stage and screen actor, born in London (d. 1948)
Mar 11 Andrew Stoddart, English cricket batsman and captain (16 Tests, 2 x 100, HS 173; Middlesex CCC) and rugby union centre & captain (10 Tests; first captain Barbarians RFC), born in Westoe, England (d. 1915)
Mar 11 Wobbe de Vries, Dutch linguist, and writer (Something About Word Formation), born in Okswerd, Netherlands (d. 1942)

Mar 12 Italian poet, writer (Il fuoco, Intruder), playwright and military hero as part of the elite Arditi storm troops, born in Pescara, Italy

Mar 12 Vladimir Vernadsky, Russian mineralogist (d. 1945)
Mar 17 Homer Plessy, American Creole shoemaker and civil rights pioneer (plaintiff in landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson 1896), born in New Orleans, Louisiana (d. 1925)
Mar 20 Ernesto Nazareth, Brazilian pianist dance and classical music composer, born in Rio de Janeiro, Empire of Brazil (d. 1934)
Mar 21 George Owen Squier, American inventor and Major General in U.S. Signal Corp (d. 1934)
Mar 21 Hugo Kaun, German composer, born in Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia (d. 1932)
Mar 23 Godfried Coenraad van Daalen, Dutch general (controversial Governor of Aceh accused of brutality), born in Makassar, Dutch East Indies (d. 1930)
Mar 25 Simon Flexner, American pathologist (d. 1946)