Nov. 3, 1815 – Born in Camnish, near Dungiven, County Derry, to John and Mary Haslet Mitchel.  Siblings (John was the oldest surviving Mitchel child) consisted of sisters, Margaret, Mary Jane, and Henrietta and brother, William. 

1819 – Mitchel family moved to Newry, County Down.

1830 – Entered Trinity College to study law. 

1834 – Took his degree from Trinity.

1836 – Met Jenny Verner and became engaged.  Captain Verner had John arrested when the two attempted to elope.  John spent eighteen days in Kilmainham jail and was released on November 29, 1836.

February 3, 1837 – Married Jenny Verner in the parish church at Drumcree.

January 24, 1838 – Son John born.

June 3, 1839 – Sworn in as an attorney.

1839 – Became afflicted with asthma

1840 – John’s father, the Reverend John Mitchel, died.

1840 – Became attorney and moved to Banbridge

October 15, 1842 –- First edition of the Nation, established by Thomas Davis, John Dillon, and Charles Gavan Duffy.

February 1843 – Mitchel began contributing to the Nation.

May 8, 1843 – Gavan Duffy proposed Mitchel’s membership for the Repeal Association.

September 16, 1845 – Thomas Davis died of an attack of scarlet fever.

1845 – Moved to Dublin and succeeded Davis as political leader writer for the Nation.

1845 – Published The Life of Aodh [Hugh] O’Neill.

November 1, 1845 – Mitchel wrote an article accusing the British of causing famine in Ireland. 

Nov. 22, 1845 – Mitchel wrote “Threats of Coercion” in which he sanctioned attacks on railways.

March 16, 1846 – Mitchel elected to chair position on the Repeal Association

July 1846 – Daniel O’Connell made it clear that Young Irelanders were no longer welcomed in Repeal because they would not accept his peace resolutions.  Young Irelanders were furious that O’Connell had realigned with the Whigs.

Autumn 1846 – Thomas Carlyle traveled to Ireland and visited the Young Irelanders.

January 13, 1847 – Young Irelanders formed the Irish Confederation

Winter 1847 – Mitchel traveled to Galway and witnessed the horrors of the Great Famine firsthand.

December 1847 – Resigned as main writer of the Nation.

January 1848 – Mitchel and Thomas Devin Reilly published articles in the Nation advocating guerrilla warfare.

February 7, 1848 – Mitchel resigns from the Irish Council, the leadership of the Irish Confederation.  He remained part of the Confederation, however. 

February 12, 1848 – Began publishing the United Irishman “as an organ of revolution.”  He was assisted by close friends John Martin and Thomas Devin Reilly.

February 22, 1848 – Revolution broke out in France.  First reports of a bloodless victory led to optimism in the Irish Confederation.

May 13, 1848 – Mitchel arrested on dubious charges of “Treason-Felony” for writing treasonous articles in the United Irishman. 

May 27, 1848 – Mitchel sentenced to fourteen years transportation.

June 1, 1848  – Mitchel commenced on board the Shearwater Steamer in Dublin Bay.

July 21, 1848 – British government announce suspension of habeas corpus in Ireland.

July 29, 1848 – William Smith O’Brien led failed “uprising” that ended in defeat at Ballingarry, County Tipperary. 

April, 1850 – Landed in Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania).

June 1851 – Wife and children joined him in Van Diemen’s Land.

June 1853 – Escaped from Van Diemen's Land.

Aug. 2, 1853 – Left Sydney.

Oct. 9, 1853 – Arrived in San Francisco

Nov. 22, 1853 – Arrived in New York

Jan. 7, 1854 – First edition of the Citizen published.

April 13, 1854 – Mitchel helped establish the Irishmen’s Civil and Military Republican Union in New York to aid the cause of freeing Ireland.

1854 – Jail Journal published. 

March 1855 – Moved family to Knoxville, Tennessee

May 1, 1855 – Moved to Tucaleeche Cove, thirty-five miles outside of Knoxville.

September 1856 – Moved to back to Knoxville.

Spring 1857 – Mitchel attended a meeting atop a mountain outside Chattanooga, Tennessee, that established the Unversity of the South at Sewanee (an institution of higher learning to inculcate Southern values.)

October 1857 – Mitchel challenged to a duel by John Fleming, the nativist editor of the Knoxville Register.  The police interfered before Fleming could fire and the duel never took place.

October 1857– Published the Southern Citizen, a Southern nationalist and pro-slavery weekly, in Knoxville with William Graham Swan. 

October 21, 1858 – James Stephens, founder of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (Fenians), visited Mitchel in Tennessee to request his support for the new organization.

December 4, 1858 – Moved the Southern Citizen to Washington. D.C. to influence American, especially Southern leaders.

October 1859 – Went to France to agitate for what he supposed was an oncoming war between Great Britain and France. 

February 1860 – Mitchel returned to the United States.

May 8, 1860 – Became citizen of the United States.

1860 – Published satire An Apology for the British Government in Ireland.

1860 – The Last Conquest of Ireland (Perhaps) published.

September 1860 – Went to Paris a second time to agitate for war between Britain and France (also with view to get France in joining an invasion of Ireland).  He also wrote articles for the Dublin Irishmen and the Charleston Mercury during his time in France.   

April 1861 – American Civil War began.  Sons John joined the First South Carolina Artillery and James joined the First Regiment of the Virginia Volunteers. 

1861 – gave permission to Henrietta to become Catholic. 

September 23, 1862 – Returned to New York and then made his way for Virginia.

1862 – Became editor of Richmond Enquirer, a pro-Confederate administration organ.  Mitchel also joined the Richmond Ambulance Committee to help wounded Confederate soldiers.

December 1862 – Almost shot by a Union soldier when he was mistaken for a Confederate officer.

May 1863 – Daughter Henrietta passed away at the Sacre Coeur convent.

July 1863 – Son Willie killed in Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg.

Summer 1864 – Personally witnessed the Battle of Petersburg while with the Ambulance Committee.

1864 – Became editor of Richmond Examiner, a paper that was critical of Jefferson Davis’s handling of the war. 

Summer 1865 – Accepted editorship of Daily News in New York, a pro-Southern paper.

June 14, 1865 – Arrested on the orders of Major-General John Adams Dix without charge. 

June 17, 1865 – Sent to Fort Monroe in Virginia.  Mitchel was placed into a cell next to the Confederate President, Jefferson Davis.

October 30, 1865 – Released from Ft. Monroe after the Fenians had requested President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward to emancipate him. 

1865-6 – Hired as financial agent of the Fenian Brotherhood.  Left for Paris November 10, 1865; arrived in Paris on Nov. 23; left for New York in autumn of 1866.

February 1867 – Mitchel turned down the offer of the Presidency of the Fenian Brotherhood. 

Autumn 1867 – History of Ireland published.

October 1867 – Published the Irish Citizen, an Irish nationalist and pro-Democratic paper.

July 27, 1872 – Last edition of the Irish Citizen published.

Winter 1872-73 – Wrote articles for the Irish-American in an endeavor to refute James Anthony Froude’s thesis attempting to justify British colonization in Ireland.

1873 – Crusade of the Period published. 

1874 – Mitchel’s name placed on the Cork City ballot for seat in Parliament.  He came in fifth. 

July 25, 1874 – Mitchel landed in Queenstown (now Cobh) with his daughter Isabel and Clan na Gael leader Dr. William Carroll.  It had been more than a quarter century since Mitchel stepped foot on Irish soil.

February 16, 1875 – Elected MP for County Tipperary as an Independent Nationalist. 

February 17, 1875 – Returned again to Ireland.  Left Brooklyn on February 6 with the knowledge that he would most likely be elected. 

February 20, 1875 – House of Commons declared Mitchel’s election void.

March 12, 1875 – Mitchel won second election for the seat from Tipperary.

Mitchel's  Family Home in Camnish, where his life began and ended.

AYoung John Mitchel at Trinity

Jenny Mitchel (nee Verner)