James Buchanan is sworn in as the fifteenth President of the United States on March 4, 1857, taking the oath of office from Chief Justice Roger B. Taney.

In his inaugural address, Buchanan commits himself to serving only one term, though Franklin Pierce had made the same commitment.

Buchanan also deplores the growing divisions over slavery and its status in the territories.

Stating that Congress should play no role in determining the status of slavery in the states or territories, Buchanan argues for popular sovereignty.

Furthermore, Buchanan argues that a federal slave code should protect the rights of slave-owners in any federal territory.

He alludes to a pending Supreme Court case, Dred Scott v. Sandford, which he states will permanently settle the issue of slavery.

In fact, Buchanan already knows the outcome of the case, and had even played a part in its disposition.

As his inauguration approached, Buchanan had sought to establish a harmonious cabinet, as he hoped to avoid the in-fighting that had plagued Andrew Jackson's top officials.

Buchanan has chosen four southerners and three northerners, the latter of whom are all considered to be doughfaces: politicians who are perceived to be pliable and moldable.

Buchanan seeks to be the clear leader of the cabinet, and has chosen men who will agree with his views.

Anticipating that his administration will concentrate on foreign policy and that Buchanan himself will largely direct foreign policy, he has appointed the aging Lewis Cass as Secretary of State.

Buchanan's appointment of southerners and southern sympathizers alienates many in the north, and his failure to appoint any followers of Stephen Douglas divides the party.

Outside of the cabinet, Buchanan will leave in place many of Pierce's appointments, but will remove a disproportionate number of northerners who have ties to Pierce or Douglas.

Buchanan will quickly alienate his vice president, John C. Breckinridge, and the latter will play little role in the Buchanan administration

The man’s three-piece lounge suit, with a jacket instead of a tailcoat, is introduced in 1860 for informal occasions.

Long trousers and a waistcoat, or vest (often elaborately decorated) complete the ensemble.

Like the Earl of Derby, such prominent New Yorkers as newspaper editor Horace Greeley and American inventor, manufacturer, and philanthropist Peter Cooper keep their faces clean shaven but allow the hair on the neck to grow into a luxuriant ruff.

Although these men will retain the style as they age, younger men had abandoned the look by the beginning of the 1860s.

At the 1860 Democratic National Convention, a split within the Democratic Party resulted in the advancement of two candidates for president, Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas (clean-shaven, side-whiskered, hair somewhat long) and Vice President John C. Breckinridge, which opens the way for the election of the still-beardless Illinois Republican Abraham Lincoln as president in 1860.

“Bleeding Kansas” has furnished the newly formed Republican Party with a much needed antislavery issue in the national election of 1860.

The Southerners, rejecting the northerner Stephen Douglas, author of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, because he had accepted the Kansas referendum against slavery, field their own candidate, John Breckinridge, while the “border states” of Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia support a third candidate, John Bell, oriented, like Douglas, towards compromise.

The Republican standard bearer, Lincoln, prevails against the three other candidates with 39.8 percent of the total vote in the American presidential election of November 6, 1850.

Of the thirty-three states in the Union, he carries eighteen, but not a single southern one, with a total of 180 electoral votes as against 123 for his three rivals combined.

With a clear majority of the electoral vote (28 more than the number required to win), Lincoln and his running mate, Hannibal Hamlin, win the presidency and vice-presidency.

Stephen A. Douglas, the candidate of the Northern Democrats, receives 29.4% of the popular vote; John C. Breckinridge, nominee of the Southern-based, pro-slavery National Democratic party, corners 18.2%; and John Bell, running on the ideologically “neutral” Constitutional Union party ticket, trails with 12.6%.

A key element in Grant's plans is control of the strategically important and agriculturally rich Shenandoah Valley.

While he confronts Lee's Army of Northern Virginia in the eastern part of the state, Grant orders Major General Franz Sigel's army of ten thousand to secure the Valley and threaten Lee's flank, starting the Valley Campaigns of 1864.

Receiving word that the Union Army had entered the Valley, Confederate General John C. Breckinridge pulls together all available forces to repulse the latest threat.

The Virginia Military Institute’s Cadet Corps, over half of whom are first year students, or "Rats",are called to join Breckinridge and his army of forty-five hundred veterans.

The cadets, under the direction of VMI Commandant of Cadets Lt. Col. Scott Shipp, marches eighty-one miles (one hundred and thirty kilometers) in four days to meet General Breckinridge's Confederate force.

The cadets are intended to be a reserve and employed in battle only under the most dire circumstances.

The two armies meet at New Market on May 15, 1864.

"I shall advance on him", the aggressive Breckinridge declared.

"We can attack and whip them here and we will do it!"

As the general rides by the cadets, he shouts, "Gentlemen, I trust I will not need your services today; but if I do, I know you will do your duty."

The battle, a Confederate victory with five hundred and forty casualties to the Union’s eight hundred and forty, is not without its cost to the VMI Cadet Corps.

Forty-eight cadets had been wounded, and ten cadets had been killed outright or died later of wounds.

General Jubal Early, following a series of unsuccessful Union attacks on his flanks, decides on July 19, to withdraw from his precarious position at Berryville to a more secure position near Strasburg.

During the evacuation of the military hospitals and storage depots at Winchester, Union forces under Brigadier General William W. Averell win a rare victory over Confederate forces under Major General Stephen D. Ramseur at the Battle of Rutherford's Farm.

The poor Confederate performance at the battle, as well as a series of small cavalry engagements south of Winchester the following day, lead Union commanders George Crook and Horatio G. Wright to conclude the Confederates are merely fighting a rearguard action and that Early is leaving the Valley and heading for Richmond to reinforce the Army of Northern Virginia.

With the threat to Washington, D.C., seemingly over, Wright withdraws the VI Corps and XIX Corp from the valley to return to the aid of Grant's siege of Petersburg, Virginia, on July 20, leaving only the three-division strong Army of West Virginia in the Valley.

The following two days are relatively quiet with both armies resting in their camps some fifteen miles (twenty-four kilometers) from each other.

On July 23, Confederate cavalry attack the Union advanced picket line at Kernstown, leading to a sharp cavalry skirmish.

From prisoners caught in the skirmish Early learns of Wright's departure.

In order to continue to be of service to Lee in the Valley, Early realizes he has to attack the diminished force in front of him to ensure that Grant's force at Petersburg will not be reinforced.

Early marches his army north against Crook on the morning of July 24.

Confederate cavalry encounters its Union counterpart south of Kernstown in the morning and heavy skirmishing broke out.

Couriers alert Crook to the attack.

Crook still believes Early's infantry had left the Valley and sent only two of his division with cavalry support to meet the attack.

In the early afternoon, the infantry of both armies had arrived on the field.

The Confederate position extends well to each side of the Valley pike south of Kernstown, anchored on each flank on high ground and screened by cavalry.

Major General John B. Gordon's division forms the Confederate center along the Valley Turnpike.

Ramseur's division forms on his left with its flank resting on Sandy Ridge to the west of Kernstown, screened by Col. William "Mudwall" Jackson's cavalry.

Brigadier General Gabriel C. Wharton's division, led by Major General John C. Breckinridge, forms the Confederate right, with its flank screened by Brigadier General John C. Vaughn's cavalry.

Early initially conceals his infantry in a woods, sending out his cavalry and skirmish line of sharpshooters to draw the Federals into battle, thus playing into Crook's misconception that the Confederate infantry has left the Valley.

The Union infantry position remains clustered around the Valley Pike in Kernstown anchored by Colonel James A. Mulligan's division on Pritchard's Hill, one of the keys to the Union success at the First Battle of Kernstown in 1862.

To his right, Colonel Joseph Thoburn's division forms on Sandy Ridge.

To his left, future president Rutherford B. Hayes's brigade forms east of the Valley turnpike.

Crook dispatches cavalry under Averell to ride around the Confederate right flank and get in its rear.

As the two armies skirmishers encounter one another the battle gets under way.

It soon becomes apparent to the Federal divisional commanders that they are facing a superior Confederate force which they are hesitant to attack and relay the information to Crook.

Crook quickly becomes impatient by the lack of his divisional commanders to attack the Confederate position, and distrusts their report of the Confederate strength.

He orders Mulligan to attack the Confederates with Hayes's division in support.

At 1 p.m., the Union infantry reluctantly moves out, abandoning Pritchard's Hill.

Mulligan's division bitterly holds its ground at Opequon Church where its advance is halted by Gordon's men.

As Hayes's brigade advances in support, Breckinridge marches Wharton's division to the northeast into a deep ravine that runs perpendicular to the Valley Turnpike.

He turns the division into the ravine, which screens his movement from the Federals on the turnpike.

As Hayes comes up the road past the ravine, Breckinridge orders a charge and the Confederates assault Hayes's exposed flank and send his division reeling in retreat, taking many casualties.

Thoburn is supposed to support Mulligan's right flank in the attack, but because of the topography of the battlefield, he becomes separated from Mulligan and sees little action during the battle.

Gordon's Confederates exploit the gap in the Union line to get on Mulligan's right and when Hayes's division breaks, Mulligan finds himself caught between two Confederate divisions.

Mulligan immediately orders a withdrawal, and is mortally wounded as he tries to rally his troops and prevent a full rout during the retreat.

The Confederate infantry presses the fleeing Federals all the way back through Winchester and the cavalry keep at their heels well into West Virginia.

Averell's cavalry had attempted to flank the Confederates as ordered but had runs headlong into Vaughn's cavalry on the Front Royal Pike.

The shock of the unexpected Confederate cavalry attack sends the Federal cavalry racing towards Martinsburg.

When the fleeing cavalry encounter the retreating wagon and artillery trains north of Winchester, it incites a panic among the Federal teamsters, causing many to abandoned their charges as they get caught up in retreat.

Many of the wagons have to be burned to prevent them from falling into Confederate hands.

As night falls, the Confederate cavalry sweeps the countryside looking for Federals who had become lost from their units in retreat.

Most of the Federals spend the night out in the rain, scattered across countryside, trying to evade capture.

The victory marks the high-water point for the Confederacy in the Valley in 1864.

Crook's broken army retreats to the Potomac River and crosses near Williamsport, Maryland, on July 26.

With the Shenandoah Valley clear of Union forces, Early launches a raid into northern territory, the last made by a substantial Confederate force during the war, burning Chambersburg, Pennsylvania as retribution for David Hunter's burning of civilian houses and farms earlier in the campaign. (Hunter had also burned the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, but Early's orders to his cavalry under John McCausland did not mention this as a justification.)

They also attack Union garrisons protecting the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad near Cumberland, Maryland.

As a result of this defeat and McCausland's burning of Chambersburg on July 30, Grant returns the VI and XIX Corps to the Valley and appoints Major General Philip Sheridan as commander of Union forces here, turning the tide once and for all against the Confederates in the Valley.