Events from the year 1861 in the United States . This year marked the beginning of the American Civil War .
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James Buchanan (D -Pennsylvania ) (until March 4)
Abraham Lincoln (R -Illinois ) (starting March 4)
John C. Breckinridge (D -Kentucky ) (until March 4)
Hannibal Hamlin (R -Maine ) (starting March 4)
William Pennington (R -New Jersey ) (until March 4)
Galusha A. Grow (R -Pennsylvania ) (starting July 4)
More information Governors and lieutenant governors ...
Governors and lieutenant governors
Governors
Governor of Alabama : Andrew B. Moore (Democratic ) (until December 2), John Gill Shorter (Democratic ) (starting December 2)
Governor of Arkansas : Henry Massey Rector (Democratic )
Governor of California : John G. Downey (Democratic )
Governor of Connecticut : William A. Buckingham (Republican )
Governor of Delaware : William Burton (Democratic )
Governor of Florida : Madison S. Perry (Democratic ) (until October 7), John Milton (Democratic ) (starting October 7)
Governor of Georgia : Joseph E. Brown (Democratic )
Governor of Illinois : John Wood (Republican ) (until January 14), Richard Yates (Republican ) (starting January 14)
Governor of Indiana :
Governor of Iowa : Samuel J. Kirkwood (Republican )
Governor of Kansas : Samuel Medary (Democratic ) (until February 9), Charles L. Robinson (Republican ) (starting February 9)
Governor of Kentucky : Beriah Magoffin (Democratic )
Governor of Louisiana : Thomas Overton Moore (Democratic ) (starting January 23)
Governor of Maine : Lot M. Morrill (Democratic ) (until January 2), Israel Washburn Jr. (Republican ) (starting January 2)
Governor of Maryland : Thomas H. Hicks (Know Nothing)/(Republican )
Governor of Massachusetts : Nathaniel Prentice Banks (Republican ) (until January 3), John Albion Andrew (Republican ) (starting January 3)
Governor of Michigan : Moses Wisner (Republican ) (until January 2), Austin Blair (Republican ) (starting January 2)
Governor of Minnesota : Alexander Ramsey (Republican )
Governor of Mississippi : John J. Pettus (Democratic )
Governor of Missouri :
Governor of New Hampshire : Ichabod Goodwin (Republican ) (until June 2), Nathaniel S. Berry (Republican ) (starting June 2)
Governor of New Jersey : Charles Smith Olden (Republican )
Governor of New York : Edwin D. Morgan (Republican )
Governor of North Carolina : John Willis Ellis (Democratic ) (until July 7), Henry Toole Clark (Democratic ) (starting July 7)
Governor of Ohio : William Dennison Jr. (Republican )
Governor of Oregon : John Whiteaker (Democratic )
Governor of Pennsylvania : William F. Packer (Democratic ) (until January 15), Andrew Gregg Curtin (Republican ) (starting January 15)
Governor of Rhode Island : William Sprague IV (Republican )
Governor of South Carolina : Francis Wilkinson Pickens (Democratic )
Governor of Tennessee : Isham G. Harris (Democratic )
Governor of Texas :
Governor of Vermont : Erastus Fairbanks (Republican ) (until October 11), Frederick Holbrook (Republican ) (starting October 11)
Governor of Virginia : John Letcher (Democratic )
Governor of Wisconsin : Alexander W. Randall (Republican )
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July–September
July 21: Confederate victory at the First Battle of Bull Run
July 13 – American Civil War : The Battle of Corrick's Ford takes place in western Virginia .
July 21 – American Civil War – First Battle of Bull Run aka First Manassas: at Manassas Junction, Virginia , the first major battle of the war ends in a Confederate victory.
July 22 – American Civil War : After Union forces led by Nathaniel Lyon capture the Missouri state capital of Jefferson City , the Missouri Constitutional Convention reconvenes and removes pro-secessionist Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson from office, replacing him with a pro-Union governor.
July 25 – American Civil War : The Crittenden–Johnson Resolution is passed by the U.S. Congress , stating that the war is being fought to preserve the Union and not to end slavery .
July 26 – American Civil War : George B. McClellan assumes command of the Army of the Potomac following a disastrous Union defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run .
August 5
August 10 – American Civil War : The first major battle west of the Mississippi River , the Battle of Wilson's Creek , is fought, with a Confederate victory.
September 3 – American Civil War : Confederate General Leonidas Polk invades neutral Kentucky , prompting the state legislature to ask for Union assistance.
September 6 – American Civil War : Forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant bloodlessly capture Paducah, Kentucky , which gives the Union control the mouth of the Tennessee River .
January 7 – Louise Imogen Guiney , poet (died 1920)
January 12 – James Mark Baldwin , philosopher and psychologist (died 1934)
January 26 – Frank O. Lowden , 25th Governor of Illinois from 1917 and U.S. Representative from Illinois from 1906 to 1911 (died 1943)
January 29 – William M. Butler , U.S. Senator from Massachusetts from 1892 to 1895 (died 1937)
February 15 – Martin Burns , wrestler and coach (died 1937 )
February 26 – Godfrey Lowell Cabot , industrialist and philanthropist (died 1962)
March 1 – Henry Harland , novelist and editor (died 1905)
March 15 – Joseph M. Devine , 6th Governor of North Dakota from 1898 to 1899 (died 1938)
March 20 – Wilds P. Richardson , U.S. Army officer (died 1929)
April 17 – Willard Saulsbury Jr. , U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1913 to 1919 (died 1927)
April 19 – John Grier Hibben , minister, philosopher and educator (died 1933)
April 20 – James D. Phelan , U.S. Senator from California from 1915 to 1921 (died 1930)
April 23 – John Peltz , baseball player (died 1906)
April 27 – William Lorimer , U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1909 to 1912 (died 1934)
May 16 – Herman Webster Mudgett , alias H. H. Holmes, serial killer (died 1896 )
May 20 – Henry Gantt , project engineer (died 1919)
May 25 – Julia Boynton Green , poet (died 1947)
June 2 – Helen Herron Taft , First Lady of the U.S. as wife of the 27th president, William Howard Taft (died 1943 )
June 6 – Joseph M. Terrell , U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1910 to 1911 (died 1912)
June 29 – William James Mayo , physician, medic, co-founder of Mayo Clinic (died 1939)
July 7 – Nettie Stevens , geneticist (died 1912)
July 9 – James M. Beck , politician (died 1936)
July 11 – George W. Norris , U.S. Senator from Nebraska from 1913 till 1943 (died 1944)
July 22
July 26 – James K. Vardaman , politician (died 1930)
August 3 – Samuel M. Shortridge , U.S. Senator from California from 1921 till 1933 (died 1952)
August 4 – Jesse W. Reno , inventor, builder of the first working escalator (died 1947)
August 6 – Edith Roosevelt , née Carow, First Lady of the U.S. (died 1948 )
August 9
August 20 – Anna Shelton , businesswoman (died 1939)
September 20 – Herbert Putnam , Librarian of Congress (died 1955)
September 21 – L. Heisler Ball , U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1919 to 1925 (died 1932)
September 30 – William Wrigley Jr. , chewing gum industrialist (died 1932)
October 4 – Frederic Remington , painter, illustrator, sculptor and writer (died 1909)
October 19 – William J. Burns , detective and director of Bureau of Investigation (died 1932)
November 2 – Charles W. Waterman , U.S. Senator from Colorado from 1927 to 1932 (died 1932)
November 6
November 10 – Bessie Alexander Ficklen , doggerel poet and hand puppet specialist (died 1945)
November 14 – Frederick Jackson Turner , historian (died 1932)
November 26 – Albert B. Fall , U.S. Senator from New Mexico from 1912 to 1921 and Secretary of the Interior from 1921 to 1923 under President Warren G. Harding (died 1944)
December 8 – William C. Durant , businessman (died 1947)
December 15 – Charles Duryea , engineer and manufacturer of motor vehicles (died 1938)
December 30 – Charles Hanford Henderson , educator and author (died 1941)
April 4 – John McLean , U.S. Postmaster General from 1823 to 1829, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court from 1829 to 1861 (born 1785 )
April 8 – Elisha Otis , industrialist, founder of the Otis Elevator Company (born 1811 )
April 15 – Isaiah Stillman , U.S. Army Major in the Black Hawk War (born 1793 )
May 21 – Benjamin Paul Akers , sculptor (born 1825 )
May 24 – Elmer E. Ellsworth , first Union officer to die in the Civil War (born 1837 )
June 3 – Stephen A. Douglas , Senator from Illinois from 1847 till 1861 and presidential candidate (born 1813 )
June 5 – John Garland , Bvt. Brigadier General in the Union Army (born 1793 )
June 13 – Richard Lawrence , failed assassin of Andrew Jackson (born c. 1800–1801)
July 7 – John Willis Ellis , 35th Governor of North Carolina from 1859 to 1861 (born 1820 )
July 13 – Robert S. Garnett , Confederate brigadier general (born 1819 )
July 22 – Barnard Elliott Bee Jr. , Confederate general (born 1824 )
August 10 – Nathaniel Lyon , Union Army brigadier general, first general to be killed in the Civil War (born 1818 )
August 12 – Eliphalet Remington , gunmaker (born 1793 )
August 17 – Alcée Louis la Branche , politician (born 1806 )
October 5 – Kinsley S. Bingham , U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1859 to 1861 (born 1808 )
October 20 – William Woodbridge , Governor of Michigan from 1840 to 1841 and U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1841 to 1847 (born 1780 )
October 21 – Edward Dickinson Baker , U.S. Senator from Oregon from 1860 to 1861 (born 1811 )
October 26 – Edward "Ned" Kendall , bandleader and instrumentalist (keyed bugle) (born 1808 )
November 28 – Richard M. Young , U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1837 to 1843 (born 1798 )
Ala. General Assembly. Journal of the House of Representatives . 1861 sess., 207 , accessed July 28, 2023