On the 1st, Confederates, in the face of Sherman's advancing army, began evacuating the key city of Atlanta. The next day, the city was surrendered by Mayor James Calhoun.
John Hunt Morgan, the Confederate General who in 1863 undertaken a highly successful raid into Indiana and Southern Ohio, was surprised and killed by Union cavalry on September 4th.
The state of Louisiana took a big step towards re-admittance to the Union when, on September 5th, voters who had taken the oath of loyalty to the United States, voted to ratify a new state constitution which abolished slavery. On that same day, Unionists in Tennessee met in Nashville with the aim of re-starting the state government, as well as participating in the national elections in the fall.
On the 7th, the USS Wachusett captured the Confederate warship CSS Florida at Bahia, Brazil.
Confederate General Joe Wheeler completed his raid into North Georgia, returning to Southern lines on the 10th.
On the 16th, Generals Grant and Sheridan conferred over problems in the Shenandoah Valley with Confederate forces under General Jubal Early. The meeting took place in Charles Town, VA.
In national politics, the old frontiersman John C. Fremont ended his presidential aspirations on the 17th.
Union and Confederate forces fought in and around Winchester, Virginia for the third time on the 19th, as Sheridan's force of 40,000 men overwhelmed the 14,000 Southern defenders. General Robert E. Rodes was mortally wounded in the battle. Early's forces fell back and the two armies fought again on the 22nd at Fisher's Hill, with the same result. This was the start of Sheridan's Shenandoah Valley campaign.
President Lincoln asked Postmaster General Montgomery Blair to resign in order to appease the radical Republicans who held different views on reconstruction.
Southern President Jefferson Davis meets with General Hood at Palmetto on the 25th. Hood asked Jefferson's permission to relieve William Hardee, who had sharply disagreed with Hood's reckless assaults.
Confederate guerillas under Bloody Bill Anderson raided Centralia, Missouri on the 27th, killing 24 Union soldiers in the town and another 116 in an ambush.
On the 28th, Hood received Davis' permission to relieve Hardee.
From September 29th and October 2nd, Union General George Meade extended his Petersburg line to the west, battling Confederates in actions at Peebles and Pegram's farms, Chappell House, Poplar Spring Church, and Vaughan Road.
Also over the 29th and 30th, Union forces under George Stannard swarmed over Fort Harrison, the main strongpoint of a string of Rebel defenses southeast of Richmond. Robert E. Lee personally led a counterattack on the 1st which failed to recapture the position.
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