Exploring the most important 55 months in American history
OTD 165 YEARS AGO: President Abraham Lincoln issues an order imposing a naval blockade on ports in the Confederate states. This is intended to prevent supplies from reaching the Confederacy, despite lacking legal basis since he did not recognize the Confederacy as a foreign nation.
OTD 165 YEARS AGO: The first blood of the war is drawn when Federal troops traveling through Baltimore fire on a jeering mob, sparking mass unrest.
OTD 165 YEARS AGO: U.S. Colonel Robert E. Lee meets with influential statesmen and receives an offer to command the Federal army.
OTD 165 YEARS AGO: Virginians react to President Lincoln’s militia proclamation by voting to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy.
OTD 165 YEARS AGO: The fall of Fort Sumter and Abraham Lincoln’s militia proclamation sparks a surge of patriotism and mass mobilizations in both North and South.
OTD 165 YEARS AGO: President Lincoln issues a proclamation calling on 75,000 volunteers to join their state militias to help force the Confederate states back into the Union. He also calls for a special session of Congress to assemble on July 4 in an effort to unite northern Republicans and Democrats against the Confederacy.