Timeline September 1862

Events in September 1862 7

• 1815 – 1862 Philip Kearny (1815-1862) Died 1 September 1862, aged 47 Kearny was a Union general known for his aggressive tactics and for losing his left arm in the Mexican-American War. He was killed by Confederate fire while personally reconnoitering enemy lines at the Battle of Chantilly.
• 1831 – 1862 Frederick Townsend Ward (1831-1862) Died 21 September 1862, aged 30 Ward was an American mercenary who organized and led the Ever Victorious Army, a Western-trained force fighting for the Qing dynasty against the Taiping rebels. He was fatally wounded in battle near Ningbo, China.
• 1862 Battle of Antietam Bloodiest single day in American military history Union and Confederate armies clashed near Sharpsburg, Maryland, leaving roughly 23,000 men dead, wounded, or missing in a single day. The battle halted Lee's first invasion of the North and gave Lincoln the opening to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.
• 1862 Lincoln issues preliminary Emancipation Proclamation Warns of freedom for enslaved people in rebel states President Abraham Lincoln announced that enslaved people in Confederate states still in rebellion on January 1, 1863 would be declared free. The proclamation reframed the Civil War as a struggle over slavery and discouraged European intervention on behalf of the Confederacy.
• 1862 – 1890 Otto von Bismarck Iron Chancellor Otto von Bismarck unified Germany through diplomacy and war and became the first Chancellor of the German Empire.
• 1862 Otto von Bismarck becomes Prussian Minister President Start of Bismarck's rise to power King Wilhelm I appointed Otto von Bismarck as Minister President of Prussia amid a constitutional crisis over military funding. Bismarck would use the position to engineer the unification of Germany over the following decade.
• 1862 Bismarck delivers "Blood and Iron" speech Prussian leader outlines path to German unity Addressing the Prussian parliament's budget committee, Otto von Bismarck declared that Germany's great questions would be decided not by speeches and majority resolutions but by iron and blood. The speech became a defining statement of Realpolitik.