1860

• Life and Correspondence of John A. Quitman, Major-General, U.S.A., and Governor of the State of Mississippi, by J.F.H. Claiborne (Harper & Brothers)
• Life and Times of Gen. Sam. Dale, the Mississippi Partisan, by J.F.H. Claiborne (Harper & Brothers)
• The Household of Bouverie, or The Elixir of Gold, by Catherine Ann Warfield (Derby & Jackson)

1861

January 9: The Mississippi legislature votes to secede from the Union.

Mississippi Department of Archives and History Jefferson Davis, a former senator from Mississippi, was inaugurated the first and only president of the Confederate States of America on February 18, a month prior to Abraham Lincoln's inauguration in Washington, D.C.

February 18: In front of the state capitol at Montgomery, Alabama, Jefferson Davis, one of Mississippi's U.S. senators, took the oath of office as provisional president of the Confederacy. A moderate secessionist who, Davis anticipates a "long and bloody war." Mississippi will ratify the Confederate Constitution in March.

April 12: In South Carolina, Confederate forces fire the opening shots of the Civil War on the Union-held Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor. Regiments of volunteers from Mississippi are quickly organized and are dispatched to Pensacola, Virginia, and Tennessee.

1862

July 16: Ida B. Wells-Barnett born in Holly Springs, Mississippi.

April 6-7: The Battle of Shiloh, the first major battle in the Civil War's western theater, takes place near Pittsburgh Landing on the Tennessee River a few miles north of Corinth, Mississippi. Despite overwhelming casualties on both sides, the Union under General Ulysses S. Grant is victorious. Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston is killed during the battle. As a result of the battle, Confederate forces, now under the command General Pierre G. T. Beauregard, retreat to Corinth, but being pursued by the Union forces and outnumbered two to one, they retreat to Tupelo, where Beauregard is replaced by General Braxton Bragg. The Union forces, now under the command of William Starke Rosecrans, make their headquarters at Corinth.

Mississippi Department of Archives and History The Battle of Corinth occurred between October 3 and 4, 1862.

October 3-4: General Earl Van Dorn, who had joined Beauregard's troops at Corinth, tries to recapture Corinth from the Union forces in the Battle of Corinth, but he is repulsed.

December 12: General Van Dorn makes a daring raid on Grant's storehouses in Holly Springs. Capturing more than 1500 Union soldiers and much-needed supplies, the raid would set back Grant's planned Vicksburg campaign by several months.

1863

July 4: Vicksburg surrenders to Union General Ulysses S. Grant after a 47-day siege. The city will not celebrate the Fourth of July for more than 80 years.

1864

• Speech of Hon. L.Q.C. Lamar of Miss., on the State of the Country, by L.Q.C. Lamar (J.J. Toon and Company)
• Master William Mitten: Or, a Youth of Brilliant Talents Who Was Ruined by Bad Luck, a novel by Augustus Baldwin Longstreet (Burke, Boykin, and Company)
• You Can Never Win Us Back, lyrics by Catherine Ann Warfield (J.W. Davies & Sons)

August 9: Union General Andrew J. Smith burns the Oxford town square.

September 30: Joseph Glover Baldwin dies in California from complications during an operation to prevent lockjaw.

1865

William C. Hall dies in Yazoo City, Mississippi.

1866

• The Romance of the Green Seal, by Catherine Ann Warfield (Beadle & Co.)

1867

• The Lost Diamond, by William Clark Falkner (Ripley Advertiser).
• The Romance of Beauseincourt: An Episode, by Catherine Ann Warfield (G.W. Carleton & Co.).

1868

July 21: Harris Dickson born in Yazoo City, Mississippi.

1869