HISTORICAL DATA-1862:









  •  JANUARY

  •  FEBRUARY:    On February 25 of this yexpenditures.ear in the United  States of America the Federal Congress passes an act authorizing the Treasury to issue US$150 million of non-interest-bearing notes (henceforth  known as the "greenbacks") to meet currennt expenditures. One-third of the issue is to be used for the redemption of the demand notes authorized last year. The new notes are not redeemable in gold, but they are made legal tender  for all private and most public purposes. The notes can be exchanged for 6% gold bonds, which are declared to be redeemable in gold in twenty years or callable at any time after five years. These notes cannot be  denominated at less than US$5.00 each.  (Source: Money and Banking-Third Edition-Raymond P. Kent, pp 73 & 77).

  •  MARCH

  •  APRIL    

  •  MAY

  •  JUNE

  •  JULY:                 At some time during this month the United States Congress authorizes a second issue of US$150 million of greenbacks and the individual notes of this series are permitted to be printed to the  total of as much as US$35 million in denominations of from US$1.00 to US$5.00 each.  (Source:  Money and Banking-Third Edition-Raymond P. Kent, pp 77-78).

  •  AUGUST

  •  SEPTEMBER:    By September 1 of this year, according to Lieutenant Colonel John H. Hougen, the Union Army of the Potomac, led by General Pope, has met with disaster and Washington, D.C. itself is in imminent danger of capture by rebel forces. Faced with this dire situation, the Union forces in the Peninsula are recalled. Officers and men of the First Minnesota Regiment complained bitterly that "The campaign planned and managed by Stanton and Halleck, had ended in disgraceful and utter defeat." SOURCE:  The Story of the Famous 34th Infantry Division, by Lieutenant Colonel John H. Hougen, Reprinted by The Battery Press, Inc. Nashville, Tennessee, 1979, chapter II The Civil War ((unpaginated)) ).

  • OCTOBER

  •  NOVEMBER

  •  DECEMBER

  •  WHOLE YEAR:    For this whole year, according to Daniel Yergin, 3 million barrels of crude oil have been produced in the western Pennsylvania oil region. He adds that "The market could not develop quickly enough" to absorb this flood and, as a result, market prices for oil plunged to the point where, at the beginning of this year it was selling for just a dime a barrel.  However, also according to Yergin, people soon became aware of oil's usefulness, and by the end of this year prices have recovered to US$4.00 per barrel.(Source:  The Prize, by Daniel Yergin, a Touchstone Book by Simon & Schuster 1992 ((paperback)), page 30). 

  • WHOLE YEAR:    All during this year Stepan Thernstrom is still pursuing his long-term study of the workinmen of Newburyport, Massachusetts in the United States of America. (Source: The American Nation...Since 1865-Second Edition ((paperback)), John A. Garraty, pg. 112).    

  • NO SPECIFIC DATE:    At some time during this year the French Empire gets involved in a war in Mexico.  (SOURCE:  A History of the Modern World [Since 1815]-((Fourth Edition, Paperback))-R. R. Palmer & Joel Colton, pg. 546).   

  • NO SPECIFIC DATE:    At some time during this year Otto von Bismarck becomes Prime Minister of Prussia and in a speech he says, "The great questions of the day will not be settled by  resolutions and majority votes--that was the mistake of the men of 1848 and 1849--but by blood and iron."   (SOURCE:  Quoted by Willaim L. Shirer in  The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich  A History of Nazi Germany  Fawcett Crest New York ((paperback)) June, 1989, pp. 138-139).

  • NO SPECIFIC DATE:    At some time during this year in the United States of America the Congress passes the Pacific Railway Act of 1862, which establishes the pattern for future governmental land grants to the railroads. This law gives the builders of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railroads five square miles of public land on each side of their right of way for each mile of track that they lay. The land is allotted in alternate sections, forming a pattern like a checkerboard, the squares of one color representing railroad property, the other government property.  (SOURCE:  The American Nation...Since 1865-Second Edition ((paperback)), John A. Garraty, pg. 76).

  • NO SPECIFIC DATE:    At some time during this year United States President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act, which has finally been passed by Congress after years of public agitation. This act is intended to change federal land policy, ending the reign of the speculator and the large landholder. The West, land eformers now assume, will soon be dotted with 160-acre family farms.  (Source:  The American Nation...Since 1865-Second Edition ((paperback)), John A. Garraty, pg. 72).

  • NO SPECIFIC DATE:   At some time during this year also, United States President Abraham Lincoln appoints provisional governors for those parts of the South which have already been occupied by federal troops.  (Source:   The American Nation...Since 1865-Second Edition ((paperback)), John A. Garraty, pg. 10).    

  • NO SPECIFIC DATE:    At this time most manufacturing business in the United States of America is still being done by unincorporated companies.  (SOURCE:  The American Nation...to 1877-Second Edition ((paperback))-John A. Garraty, pg. 263).

  • NO SPECIFIC DATE:    At some time during this year the British Parliament in London establishes the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament to enforce upon the Crown the effective and efficient collection and expenditure of moneys.  (Source:  Government Budgeting-Jesse Burkhead, pg. 4).

  • NO SPECIFIC DATE:    At some time during this year a sketch is made of a Cree Indian saddle made of buffalo skin and stitched with buffalo sinew. Women's saddles have both a pommel and a cantle.  (Source: The American Nation...Since 1865-Second Edition ((paperback)), John A. Garraty, pg. 35, illustration and caption).

         

  • NO SPECIFIC DATE:    At some time during this year, after United States of America's federal troops have been pulled out of the Great Plains for service elsewhere against troops of the Confederacy, most of the Plains Indians rise against the white settlers who remain there.  (Source:  The American Nation...Since 1865-Second Edition ((paperback))-John A. Garraty, page 62). 

  • NO SPECIFIC DATE:    At some time during this year parts of the Snake River Valley area of Idaho experience what John Garraty calls "the frenzy of a gold rush".  (Source:  The American Nation...Since 1865-Second Edition ((paperback)), John A. Garraty, pg. 70).

     

         

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