• February 1
• Texas secedes from the United States.
• March 2
• Texas joins the Confederate States of America.
• April 12
• American Civil War begins.

• July 26
• Sam Houston dies in the bedroom of the Steamboat House, succumbing to pneumonia at age seventy. He was buried in Oakwood Cemetery at Huntsville.

April 9

• American Civil War ends.

• February 6
• The Peabody Education Fund is established.
• Huntsville yellow fever epidemic reportedly kills 10% of Huntsville's population.