1862
1862 was 9 years before the founding of the City of Birmingham, 43 years after Alabama became a state, and one year after Alabama joined the Confederacy.
Events
- February 7: A group of Federal gunboats under the command of Lieutenant Seth Phelps landed at Florence and destroyed stores and steamboats there.
- An experiment conducted at the Tannehill Ironworks proved iron ore from Red Mountain could successfully be used in blast furnaces.
- Samuel Tarrant raised the Jonesboro Guards.
Business
- November 5: The Red Mountain Iron and Coal Company was incorporated.
- The Brierfield Ironworks contracted with the Confederate government to supply iron to the Confederate Naval Ordnance Works in Selma.
- William L. Sanders bought the Tannehill Ironworks.
- Horace Ware sold most of his shares in the Shelby County Iron Manufacturing Corporation to other investors, which was then renamed the Shelby Iron Company.
Individuals
- April: Benjamin Roden was wounded by a musket ball to the knee at the Battle of Shiloh.
- August: Alburto Martin was permanently injured by a shell at the Second Battle of Bull Run.
- August: Goldsmith Hewitt II was promoted to captain of Company G of the 28th Alabama Infantry.
- August 16: Abner Killough succeeded Richard Hudson for his second time as Jefferson County Sheriff.
- October 2: Chambers McAdory wounded at the Battle of Corinth and taken prisoner.
- November 7: Samuel Ullman won his discharge from the Confederate Army after providing a substitute.
- William Payton Hickman became Jefferson County Treasurer.
- John Terry entered the Confederate army as a 1st Lieutenant.
- N. F. Thompson enlisted with the Rock City Guards at Corinth.
- William Walker Sr closed his store and retired due to lack of faith in Confederate currency.
- W. L. Wilson was elected probate judge for Jefferson County.
Births
- March 8: William Grubb, attorney and federal judge
- March 16: Louis Gelders, restaurateur
- April 1: Louis Clark, insurance executive, developer and Alabama National Guard officer
- April 20: Charles Allen, building contractor
- May 6: Oscar Underwood, U.S. Representative and Senator
- May 29: William Parish, artist
- September 20: Robert Terrell, banker
- December: Ernest Loosley, bicycle repairman and merchant
- Sylvester Daly, iron-worker, saloonkeeper and member of the Birmingham Board of Aldermen
- John Manning, Bessemer police officer
- Erwin Schillinger, brewer
- Idyl King Sorsby (as Idyl King), designer of the Flag of Birmingham
Deaths
- April 30: Joseph Stroup, Confederate soldier
Context
In 1862, the Civil War and Taiping Rebellion continued. Jefferson Davis was officially inaugurated to a 6-year term as president of the Confederate States of America. The Bureau of Internal Revenue, forerunner of the Internal Revenue Service, was established. President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. The Gatling gun was patented.
Books published in 1862 included Les Misérables by Victor Hugo.
Notable births in 1862 included writer Edith Wharton, composer Frederick Delius, composer Claude Debussy, writer O. Henry, inventor Auguste Lumière, and baseball player & evangelist Billy Sunday. Notable deaths included inventor Samuel Colt, former president John Tyler, author & philosopher Henry David Thoreau, and former president Martin Van Buren.
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