The president of the Confederacy Jefferson Davis orders his general P. G. T. Beauregard to bombard Fort Sumpter in Charleston Harbor, marking the beginning of the Civil War.

Many German immigrants in America who were driven out of Europe in the aftermath of a failed reformist revolution of 1848 signed up for the Union cause.  In fact the Republican abolitionists scrapped the temperance plank in their platform to prevent alienating the Germans.  

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Associated Breweries

Casanova Brewing Company of Hudson, Wisconsin, USA
Rohs & Co. of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
George Brandt, Union Brewery of Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA
Engesser Brewing Company of Saint Peter, Minnesota, USA
United Brewing Company of Newark, New Jersey, USA
The Union Brewery of Bloomington, Illinois, USA
Albert Selak (brewer and brewer's agent) of Blackhawk, Colorado, USA
Graf Bros., Union Brewing Co. of Iowa City, Iowa, USA
Des Moines Brewing Company of Des Moines, Iowa, USA
Peter Weber's Union Brewery of Madison, Indiana, USA
Adolph Vockrodt Ale Brewery of Keokuk, Iowa, USA
The Union Brewery, John Schlawig of Sioux City, Iowa, USA
Henry Herman Neef of Tipton, Missouri, USA
Nicholas Martin of Maysville, Kentucky, USA