1861

1860 1861 1862

Events

Pony Express ends.
Risorgimento: political unification of Italy.
Immigration increases Irish population in England and Wales to 601634.
Russian Tsar Alexander II appoints Dimitri Miliutin to be War Minister, a position he will hold until 1881.

January 9: U.S. Civil War begins.
April 11: Surrender of Fort Sumter demanded by Confederate traitors.
April 12-14: Bombardment of Fort Sumter and evacuation by Union Army.
July 21: First Battle of Bull Run ends in Confederate victory.
November 9: Confederate Secretary of War Judah P. Benjamin selects Union POW Col. Michael Corcoran (commander of the Irish 69th New York Regiment) to be executed as a threatened reprisal for the execution of Confederate privateer Walter W. Smith.