Civil War Timeline / Chronology for February 1863

February 1, 1863	Naval assault on Ft. McAllister	Georgia
	Fort McAllister
February 3, 1863	The French offer to mediate the Civil War
February 3, 1863	Union ram Queen of the West sails past Vicksburg to disrupt Confederate shipping. After being hit 12 time by artillery, she rams the Confederate ship City of Vicksburg.	Mississippi
	Queen of the West
February 5, 1863	General Joseph Hooker reorganizes the Army of the Potomac appointing J. F. Reynolds, Darius Couch, Dan Sickles, George Meade, John Sedgwick, W. F. Smith, Franz Sigel and Henry Slocum in command of individual corps. George Stoneman is named his cavalry chief. Smith's Ninth Corps is assigned to Newport News to increase pressure on Richmond
	Joseph Hooker
	George Meade
	Army of the Potomac
	William Farrar Smith
	John Sedgwick
February 6, 1863	William Seward informs Minister Mecier that the French offer to mediate the Civil War had been rejected by the United States
	William Seward
February 12, 1863	West Virginia's constitutional convention reconvenes following Congress's request that certain wording (about slaves) be modified.	West Virginia
	West Virginia Constitutional Convention
February 12, 1863	Federal ships including the Queen of the West take more than $2 million in cargo in a single day on the Mississippi, Red, and White Rivers and the clipper ship Jacob Bell in the Caribbean
	Queen of the West
February 13, 1863	President Lincoln is visited by diminutive circus act General Tom Thumb and his wife.
	Abraham Lincoln
February 14, 1863	Queen of the West runs aground on the Red River. It is abandoned.	Louisiana
	Queen of the West
February 16, 1863	U. S. Senate passes the Conscription Act
February 17, 1863	West Virginia approves a revised state constitution	West Virginia
February 17, 1863	General Grant rescinds the order halting publication of the Chicago Times as a "copperhead" paper
	Ulysses S. Grant
	copperhead
February 18, 1863	A Democrat Convention in Richmond, Kentucky, is broken up by federal authorities because some members were pro-Confederate	Kentucky
	Democratic Party
February 24, 1863	Territory of Arizona is organized from the Territory of New Mexico
February 25, 1863	Major General Daniel Harvey Hill [CS] assumes command of all North Carolina forces	North Carolina
	Daniel Harvey Hill
February 26, 1863	The National Currency Act was signed into law by President Lincoln, creating a national banking system, a Currency Bureau and the office of Comptroller of the Currency. The act's goal was to establish a single currency.
	Abraham Lincoln
February 26, 1863	The Cherokee Nation rescinds its declaration of secession and abolished slavery, reversing its earlier course
February 28, 1863	At Ft. McAllister, federal gunships including the ironclad U. S. S. Montauk moved up the Ogeechee River to destroy the Rattlesnake, a Confederate privateer also known as the Nashville before it was decommissioned	Georgia
	Fort McAllister
February 28, 1863	Work begins on rebuilding Ford's Theater after a fire
	Ford's Theater