1856 in the United States in Encyclopedia

1856 in the United States

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1856 in the United States

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

January 24 – U.S. President Franklin Pierce declares the new Free-State Topeka government in Bleeding Kansas to be in rebellion.
January 26 – First Battle of Seattle (1856): 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.

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 – 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 – Battle of Black Jack: Antislavery forces, led by John Brown, defeat proslavery forces in Bleeding Kansas.
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 17 – The Great Train Wreck of 1856: The deadliest railroad catastrophe in the world up to that time occurs near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
August 10 – A hurricane destroys Last Island, Louisiana, leaving 400 dead. The whole island is broken up into several smaller islands by the storm.
August 30 – Battle of Osawatomie: Proslavery forces defeat antislavery forces in Bleeding Kansas.
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.