Exploring the most important 55 months in American history
OTD 165 YEARS AGO: Robert E. Lee directs Thomas J. Jackson to assemble Confederate troops at strategic Harpers Ferry, Va. Command then shifts from Jackson to Joseph E. Johnston, who soon learns that the place is highly vulnerable to attack.
OTD 165 YEARS AGO: Benjamin Butler oversteps his authority and sends his Federal troops to seize the troublesome city of Baltimore.
OTD 165 YEARS AGO: Confederates keep a tenuous hold on hostile northwestern Virginia while Unionists consider seceding from the rest of the state.
OTD 165 YEARS AGO: A riot breaks out in St. Louis as Federal forces struggle to maintain order as Missourians flee their state.
OTD 165 YEARS AGO: Nathaniel Lyon and his Federal Home Guard cause controversy in Missouri by preemptively forcing the surrender of an allegedly pro-Confederate state militia force in western St. Louis.
165 YEARS AGO: By this month, most Federal troops had evacuated the Indian Territory due to inadequate troops. This emboldened the Confederacy to form a tentative alliance with the Natives.