Exploring the most important 55 months in American history
Confederates try to curry favor with France, and Great Britain suffers a severe economic downturn due to the lack of southern cotton.
Former U.S. vice president John C. Breckinridge leads a Confederate force in a campaign to regain the Louisiana capital of Baton Rouge.
Abraham Lincoln issues a proclamation warning southerners to stop aiding and abetting the Confederacy or risk having their property, including slaves, confiscated by military force.
Henry W. Halleck gets George B. McClellan to agree to move his Federal Army of the Potomac on the Virginia Peninsula, but McClellan soon changes his mind.
Braxton Bragg mobilizes his Confederate army to move from Tupelo to Chattanooga and ultimately join forces with Confederates in east Tennessee.
With the number of prisoners of war quickly growing, Federals and Confederates agree to a tentative system of prisoner exchange.