January 2012

BROOKLYN, NY—The USS Monitor, the first American ironclad, is launched from the Greenpoint shipyards in Brooklyn. 

WASHINGTON, DC—President Lincoln, in a desperate move to motivate General McClellan, orders General War Order No. 1, stating that all naval and land units would attack Confederate insurgents by February 1862. 

NANCY, KY—Union forces in Kentucky secure a critical victory as they repel Confederate attacks at the Battle of Mill Springs. Led by Brig. General George H. Thomas, Federal soldiers forced the Confederates to retreat south of the Cumberland River, securing southern Kentucky. 

WASHINGTON, DC—United States Senate confirms Edwin Stanton as President Lincoln's second Secretary of War.