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First shots of the war fired on a Union fort inside Confederate territory, at the opening of the Charleston harbor. Confederate victory.
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The most populous and industrialized Southern state secedes from the Union.
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30,000 Union soldiers move towards Richmond, VA where they meet an equal amount of Confederate troops. At the small creek of Bull Run rebel reinforcements mange to win the day.
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General Grant captures two Confederate forts that occupy strategic positions on two tennessee rivers.
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Grant's troops are encamped near a church at the Mississippi border where they are surprised by a large army of Confederates. Despite heavy losses Union reinforcements manage to turn the tide.
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A Union fleet commanded by David Farragut attacks New orleans and captures the entire city in only three days, the South's biggest port.
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The age of the wooden warships ends and the Ironclad battleships replace them on the battlefield.
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Over the course of one week the Confederate Army manages to negate an invading Union Army by forcing them down the Virgianian coast.
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This Union victory proved to the bloodiest battle of any U.S. war and stopped a Confederate advance into the North.
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In a bold political move to drum up support for the war, Lincoln frees all slaves in the Confederate controlled United States, but not in the Union controlled parts.
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General Lee, in an attempt to turn the tide of the war, invades Pennsylvania. In the first day the South held the town but the North holds the highground. On the second day Union lines are attacked but manage to hold the line and repulse the South. On July 3rd Lee's final attack is decimated by massed Union artillery. The Confederacy will never again field numbers large enough to invade the North.
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Grant besieges Vicksburg and succeeds in taking the city. Grant has effectively cut the South in two. One day after Gettysburg.
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Poor workers in New York city riot in protest of drafting and attack anything rich men, black people, drafters, and republicans.
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Ahead of Lincoln is what he thinks is an unwinnable election. Facing heavy opposition from pro-peace party members, third party radicals, and Democrats, Lincoln forms a new party and takes on a democratic running mate. This and several Union victories and votes from the union army secure his second term.
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By late March the end of the Confederacy had become clear to everyone. On April 2 Confederates burn Richmond to the ground and on the ninth Lee and grant meet in the town of Appomattox Court House. Lee unconditionally surrenders the Confederate Armed Forces.