Abraham Lincoln ( February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865 ) was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865.

Their impolitic occupation of Columbus, Kentucky on September 3, 1861, two days before Johnston arrived in the Confederacy's capital, Richmond, Virginia, after his cross – country journey, drove Kentucky from its stated neutrality and the majority of Kentuckians into the Union camp.

* Connelly, Thomas L. Army of the Heartland: The Army of Tennessee 1861 – 1862.

The Civil War Day by Day: An Almanac, 1861 – 1865.

* Weigley, Russell F. A Great Civil War: A Military and Political History, 1861 – 1865.

The American Civil War ( 1861 – 1865 ), in the United States often referred to as simply the Civil War and sometimes called the " War Between the States ", was a civil war fought over the secession of the Confederate States.

Land warfare in the East was inconclusive in 1861 – 62, as the Confederacy beat back Union efforts to capture its capital, Richmond, Virginia, notably during the Peninsular Campaign.

* 1861 – First performance of Arthur Sullivan's debut success, his suite of incidental music for The Tempest, leading to a career that included the famous Gilbert and Sullivan operas.

* 1861 – Stanislas de Guaita, French occultist ( d. 1897 )

* 1861 – American Civil War: The war begins with Confederate forces firing on Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.

* 1796 – George N. Briggs, American politician, 19th Governor of Massachusetts ( d. 1861 )

* 1861 – Union forces attack Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

* 1861 – The United Kingdom annexes Lagos, Nigeria.

* 1861 – Edith Roosevelt, American wife of Theodore Roosevelt, 27th First Lady of the United States ( d. 1948 )

* 1861 – Sammy Jones, Australian cricketer ( d. 1951 )

* 1811 – Elisha Otis, American inventor and businessman, founded the Otis Elevator Company ( d. 1861 )

This became poignantly true during the most serious test of American cohesion in the U. S. Civil War ( 1861 – 1865 ).

* 1861 – American Civil War: Maryland's House of Delegates votes not to secede from the Union.

* 1861 – First ascent of Weisshorn, fifth highest summit in the Alps.

* 1861 – American Civil War: Fort Sumter surrenders to Confederate forces.

* 1861 – Iván Persa, Hungarian-Slovene writer and catholic priest ( d. 1935 )

* 1861 – American Civil War: US Navy squadron captures forts at Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina.

The Robber Barons: The Great American Capitalists, 1861 – 1901 ISBN 99918-47-99-5

* 1766 – Collin McKinney, American surveyor, merchant, politician, and preacher, helped draft the Texas Declaration of Independence ( d. 1861 )

* 1861 – American Civil War: in order to help pay for the war effort, the United States government levies the first income tax as part of the Revenue Act of 1861 ( 3 % of all incomes over US $ 800 ; rescinded in 1872 ).

This covered, wooden bridge is so closely identified with the first action in the early morning of June 3, 1861, and with subsequent troop movements of both armies in the Philippi area that it has become a part and parcel of the war story.

Although it had at first been somewhat established in many colonies, in 1861 it was ruled that, except where specifically established, the Church of England had just the same legal position as any other church.

He aimed the cannon that fired the first return shot in answer to the Confederate bombardment on April 12, 1861.

Aberdare, during its boom years, was considered a centre of Welsh culture: it hosted the first National Eisteddfod in 1861, again in 1885, and in 1956 at Aberdare Park where the Gorsedd standing stones still exist.

The first documented gridiron football match was a game played at University College, a college of the University of Toronto, November 9, 1861.

The first linguist to offer reconstructed forms from a proto-language was August Schleicher, in his Compendium der vergleichenden Grammatik der indogermanischen Sprachen, originally published in 1861.

The names dyne and erg were first proposed as units of force and energy in 1861 by Everett.

The first step toward Indian self-rule was the appointment of councillors to advise the British viceroy, in 1861 ; the first Indian was appointed in 1909.

In his 1861 Beadle guide, he listed totals of games played, outs, runs, home runs, and strikeouts for hitters on prominent clubs, the first database of its kind.

The first milestones in the Japanese media history were newspapers in the Meiji period, the first being the Nagasaki Shipping List & Advertiser, founded 1861 in Nagasaki, with the telegraph and telephone following suit.

* 1861 – American Civil War: Battle of Philippi ( also called the Philippi Races ) – Union forces rout Confederate troops in Barbour County, Virginia, now West Virginia, in first land battle of the War.

* 1861 – American Civil War, Battle of Fairfax Court House ( June 1861 ), first land battle of American Civil War after Battle of Fort Sumter, first Confederate combat casualty.

* 1861 – American Civil War: at the order of President Abraham Lincoln, Union troops begin a 25 mile march into Virginia for what will become the First Battle of Bull Run, the first major land battle of the war.

As provisional president in 1861, Davis formed his first cabinet.

* 1861 – American Civil War: First Battle of Bull Run – at Manassas Junction, Virginia, the first major battle of the war begins and ends in a victory for the Confederate army.

* Charles Dickens ' novel, Great Expectations ( first published in serial form in the publication All the Year Round from 1 December 1860 to August 1861 ), contains a reference in chapter 48 to a couple having been married " over the broomstick.

The first university in modern India was setup by the British in Calcutta in 1861 as a means of spreading western philosophical thought among the elite in India and to create in the words of Lord Macaulcay, “ a class of Indians who would be Indian in blood and colour but western in thought and ideas .” This initiative was furthered by the passing of the Universities Act of 1904.

Published in 27 issues from June 9, 1858 to February 4, 1861, Le Libertaire was the first anarcho-communist journal published in America.