1856 in the United States

1856 in the United States
Years:	1853 1854 1855 – 1856 – 1857 1858 1859
Flag
31 stars (1851–58)
Timeline of United States history History of the United States (1849–65)

1856 in the United States included some significant events that pushed the nation closer towards civil war.

Incumbents

Federal Government

• President: Franklin Pierce (D-New Hampshire)
• Vice President: vacant
• Chief Justice: Roger B. Taney (originally now residing in from of the U.S. state of Maryland)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Nathaniel P. Banks (American-Massachusetts)
• Congress: 34th

Governors and Lieutenant Governors
Governors 2 Lieutenant Governors 2

Events

January–March

• January 24 – U.S. President Franklin Pierce declares the new Free-State Topeka government in Bleeding Kansas to be in rebellion.
• January 26 – Puget Sound War/Yakima War – Battle of Seattle: Marines from the USS Decatur drive off American Indian attackers after an all day battle with settlers.
• February – The Tintic War breaks out in Utah.
• February 1 – Auburn University is first chartered as the East Alabama Male College.
• February 2 – Dallas, Texas is incorporated as a city.
• February 18 – The American Party (Know-Nothings) convene in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to nominate their first Presidential candidate, former President Millard Fillmore.
• March 6 – Maryland Agricultural College (present-day University of Maryland, College Park) is chartered.
• March 9 – National Fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon is founded at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
• April 10 – The Theta Chi Fraternity is founded at Norwich University.

April–June

May 22: Preston Brooks attacks Charles Sumner.

• May 16 – The Vigilance Committee is founded in San Francisco, California. It lynches two gangsters, arrests most Democratic Party officials and disbands itself on August 18.
• May 21 – Bleeding Kansas: Lawrence, Kansas is captured and burned by pro-slavery forces (the "Sacking of Lawrence").
• May 22 – Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in the hall of the United States Senate, for a speech Sumner had made attacking Southerners who sympathized with the pro-slavery violence in Kansas ("Bleeding Kansas"). Sumner is unable to return to duty for 3 years while he recovered; Brooks becomes a hero across the South.
• May 24 – Pottawatomie Massacre: A group of followers of radical abolitionist John Brown kill 5 homesteaders in Franklin County, Kansas.
• June 2 – Bleeding Kansas – Battle of Black Jack: Anti-slavery forces, led by John Brown, defeat pro-slavery forces.
• June 6 – At the Democratic National Convention, President Franklin Pierce is denied re-nomination for the November presidential election.
• June 9 – 500 Mormons leave Iowa City, Iowa and head west for Salt Lake City, Utah, carrying all their possessions in two-wheeled handcarts.

July–September

July 17: The Great Train Wreck of 1856.

• July 17 – The Great Train Wreck of 1856: Two trains collide near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania killing at least 59 and injuring at least 100.
• August 10 – 1856 Last Island hurricane: A hurricane destroys Last Island, Louisiana, leaving at least 200 dead. The whole island is broken up into smaller islands by the storm.
• August 30 – Bleeding Kansas – Battle of Osawatomie: Pro-slavery forces defeat anti-slavery forces.
• September 1 – Seton Hall University is founded by Archdiocese of Newark Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley, a cousin of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt and nephew of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton.

October–December

• November 4 – U.S. presidential election, 1856: Democrat James Buchanan defeats former President Millard Fillmore, representing a coalition of "Know-Nothings" and Whigs, and John C. Frémont of the fledgling Republican Party, to become the 15th President of the United States.
• November 17 – American Old West: On the Sonoita River in present-day southern Arizona, the United States Army establishes Fort Buchanan in order to help control new land acquired in the Gadsden Purchase.
• November 21 – Niagara University is founded in Niagara Falls, New York.

Undated

• August 23 – Kate Warne, the first female private detective, begins to work for the Pinkerton Detective Agency.

Ongoing

• Bleeding Kansas (1854–1860)
• Third Seminole War (1855–1858)

Births

• August 15 – Charles E. Townsend, United States Senator from Michigan from 1911 till 1923. (died 1924)
• September 5
  • Thomas E. Watson, United States Senator from Georgia from 1921 till 1922. Died in 1922.
  • William B. McKinley, United States Senator from Illinois from 1921 till 1926. Died in 1926.
• September 9 – Richard R. Kenney, United States Senator from Delaware from 1897 till 1901. Died in 1931.
• November 17 – Thomas Taggart, United States Senator from Indiana in 1916. Died in 1929.
• December 22 – Frank B. Kellogg, United States Senator from Minnesota from 1917 till 1923. (died 1937)
• December 28 – Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States from 1913 till 1921. Died in 1924.

Deaths

• January 1 – John M. Berrien, United States Senator from Georgia from 1841 till 1852. (born 1781)
• April 26 – George Troup, United States Senator from Georgia from 1816 till 1818 and from 1829 till 1833. (born 1780)
• May 5 – William Crosby Dawson, United States Senator from Georgia from 1849 till 1855. (born 1798)
• May 31 – John Milton Niles, United States Senator from Connecticut from 1835 till 1839 and from 1843 till 1849. (born 1787)
• July 9
  • Alfred Cuthbert, United States Senator from Georgia from 1835 till 1843. (born 1785)
  • James Strang, Mormon splinter group leader (born 1813)
• September 7 – Almon W. Babbitt, Mormon pioneer and first secretary/treasurer of Utah Territory (born 1812)
• November 9 – John M. Clayton, United States Senator from Delaware from 1829 till 1836, from 1845 till 1849 and from 1853 till 1856. (born 1796)

External links

• Media related to at Wikimedia Commons