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Period: to
Civil War
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The Election of 1860
Bleeding Kansas made the Democratic party ever more divided between its northern and southern factions.Dred Scott v. Sandford ruling delighted the souther democcrats but the northern republicans were shocked and indignated.After John Browns raid, most Americans understood that their country was moving to the brink of disunion. Abraham Lincoln is elected president and it triggered the South's decesion to leave the Union. -
Winfield Scott and the Anaconda Plan
The first military strategy offered to President Abraham Lincoln for crushing the rebellion of Southern states was devised by Union General-in-Chief Winfield Scott. He believed an effective "Blockade" of Southern ports, and the establishment of a line of strong Federal positions there would isolate the disorganized Confederate nation -
Fort Sumter
The first battle of the civil war. Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina was cut off from supplies and reinforcements by southern control of the harbor. The attack on Fort Sumter and its capture after two days of incessant pounding united most northeners behind a patrioctic fight to save the Union. -
Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee was a Whig. He later became the Confederate General. He was in charge of the defences at Richmond, and defeated Federal forces in the Seven Days' Battles. -
Battle of Bull Run
This was the first major land battle of the Civil War. The Union and Confederate forces met at Manassas, Virginia where they made plans to attack each other near a stream of water. This was a win for the Cofederate forces and made the war now seem real back home in the North and South. -
Thomas Stonewall Jackson
He earned his nickname for bravery at Bull Run. Stonewall Jackson is widely known as one of the greatest of the Confederate commanders of the Civil War. He was mistakenly shot by his own men on the night at the The Battle of Chancellorsville. -
George McClellan
He worked for the Illinois Central-as chief engineer and vice president. Initially appointed by Ohio's Governor William Dennison, he was soon made second only to Scott by a former attorney for the Illinois Central-Abraham Lincoln. -
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the Union Civil War General. In February 1862 he took Fort Henry and attacked Fort Donelson. The Confederates surrendered, and President Lincoln promoted Grant to major general of volunteers. -
Jefferson Davis
President of the Confederate States of America. He was elected to the office by popular vote the same year for a 6-year term and was inaugurated in Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy, on February 22, 1862. Jefferson Davis was responsible for the raising Confederate armies and appointment of General Robert E. Lee as commander of the Army of Virginia. -
Monitor and Merrimac
The Confederates had raised the sunken Merrimac in the Gosport navy yard and converted it into an iron-clad ram, which they called the Virginia, commanded by Captain Buchanan, late of the United States navy.Meanwhile another vessel of novel form and aspect had been constructed at Greenpoint. L. I., N. Y., under the direction of CAPT. JOHN ERICSSON, who used Theodore R. Timby's invention of a revolving turret. -
Battle of Antietam
The Bloodiest Day of the Civil War. After pursuing Confederate General Robert E. Lee into Maryland, Union Army Major General George B. McClellan launched attacks against Lee's army, in defensive positions behind Antietam Creek. -
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation is an executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War under his war powers. It proclaimed the freedom of 3.1 million of the nation's 4 million slaves, and immediately freed 50,000 of them, with the rest freed as Union armies advanced. -
Battle of Fredericksburg
The Battle of Fredericksburg was fought December 11–15, 1862, in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia, between General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and the Union. The South won. -
Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg was fought around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was the battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War and is often described as the war's turning point. Union Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade's Army of the Potomac defeated attacks by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, ending Lee's invasion of the North. -
Battle of Vicksburg
The Siege of Vicksburg was the final major military action in the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. The Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee crossed the Mississippi River and drove the Confederate army of Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton into the defensive lines surrounding the fortress city of Vicksburg, Mississippi. -
Gettysburg Address
The Gettysburg Address is a speech by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and is one of the best-known speeches in United States history. It was delivered by Lincoln during the American Civil War, on November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, four and a half months after the Union armies defeated those of the Confederacy at the decisive Battle of Gettysburg. -
Sherman’s March
Sherman's March to the Sea is the name commonly given to the Savannah Campaign conducted by Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman of the Union Army in the American Civil War. The campaign began with Sherman's troops leaving the captured city of Atlanta, Georgia on November 15 and ended with the capture of the port of Savannah on December 21. It inflicted significant damage, particularly to industry and infrastructure. -
Appomattox Court House
With his army surrounded, his men weak and exhausted, Robert E. Lee realized there was little choice but to consider the surrender of his Army to General Grant. After a series of notes between the two leaders, they agreed to meet on April 9, 1865, at the house of Wilmer McLean in the village of Appomattox Courthouse. The meeting lasted approximately two and one-half hours and at its conclusion the bloodliest conflict in the nation's history neared its end. -
Lincoln’s Assassination
April 14th 1865 at 10pm President Abraham Lincoln was attending “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s theatre, with his wife and two guests, but no bodyguard. Lincoln was shot in the back of the head at point blank range by John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln died the next day, after never waking from the coma.
