May is the fifth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars and one of seven months with the length of 31 days. May is a month of autumn in the Southern Hemisphere and spring in the Northern Hemisphere (Summer in Europe). Therefore May in the Southern Hemisphere is the seasonal equivalent of November in the Northern Hemisphere and vice versa.
May symbols: The birthstone of May is the emerald which is emblematic of love and success. The May birth flower is the Lily of the Valley and the Crataegus monogyna. The mayflower Epigaea repens is a North American harbinger of May, and the floral emblem of both Nova Scotia and Massachusetts. Its native range extends from Newfoundland south to Florida, west to Kentucky in the southern range, and to Northwest Territories in the north. The zodiac signs for the month of May are Taurus (until May 20) and Gemini (May 21 onwards).
Historical Events for May, 1862
Day of Week 1st » American Civil War: The Union Army completes its capture of New Orleans.
Day of Week 5th » Cinco de Mayo: troops led by Ignacio Zaragoza halt a French invasion in the Battle of Puebla in Mexico.
Day of Week 11th » American Civil War: The ironclad Ship CSS Virginia is scuttled in the James River (Virginia) James River northwest of Norfolk, Virginia.
Day of Week 12th » United States named U.S. federal troops occupy Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Day of Week 13th » The USS Planter 1862 6, a steamer and gunship, steals through Confederate lines and is passed to the Union, by a southern slave, Robert Smalls, who later was officially appointed as captain, becoming the first black man to command a United States ship.
Day of Week 15th » President of the United States known as President Abraham Lincoln signs a bill into law creating the United States Bureau of Agriculture. It is later renamed the United States Department of Agriculture.
Day of Week 20th » President of the United States e.g U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act into law.
Day of Week 31st » American Civil War Peninsula Campaign: Battle of Seven Pines or (Battle of Fair Oaks) Confederate forces under Joseph E. Johnston & Gustavus Woodson Smith e.g G.W. Smith engage Union forces under George B. McClellan outside Richmond, Virginia.