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 (Maryland) Speaker of the House of Representatives: Nathaniel P. Banks (American-Massachusetts) Congress: 34th
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 12 – American clipper ships Driver and Ocean Queen leave Liverpool and London respectively; both will be lost without trace in the Atlantic, perhaps due to ice, killing 374 and 123 respectively. 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 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 pro-slavery supporters 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: 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 21 – The Charter Oak fell to the ground during a storm August 23 – Kate Warne, the first female private detective, begins to work for the Pinkerton Detective Agency. August 30 Bleeding Kansas – Battle of Osawatomie: Pro-slavery forces defeat anti-slavery forces. Chickasaw Constitution signed; establishes new Chickasaw Nation in Indian Territory. 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.
Ongoing
Bleeding Kansas (1854–1860) Third Seminole War (1855–1858)