-
-
Jefferson Davis wants to push forward for the southern states to secede.
-
Lincoln delivers a speach at a instituite in New York.
-
Democrat meeting in Charleston, South Carolina can not decide on a nominiee.
-
Union Party has meeting in Baltimore and creates platform from U.S. constitution and selects John Bell as president to represent the whigs and know-nothings.
-
William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase and Abraham Lincoln of Illinois are the leading contenders from a field of 12 candidates. Lincoln wins ballot and Hannibal Hamlin is vice president.
-
Party leaders urge a "wait and see" approach.
-
They select John c. Breckinridge as their nominie for president.
-
Lieutenant Colonel William Hardee is replaced by Major John F. Reynolds as commander of cadets at West Point.
-
Abraham Lincoln is the first republican to receive more than half of electoral votes and only forty percent of the popular vote.
-
South Carolina is the first state to secede from the union and start on its own.
-
Seceded States adopt a provisional constitution forming the Confederate States of America.
-
After considering William Yancey, Howell Cobb, Robert Toombs, Alexander Stephens, and Robert Barnwell Rhett for President of the Confederate States of America, the Convention settles on Jefferson Davis.
-
P. G. T. Beauregard appointed Brigadier General.
-
Jefferson Davis orders General P. G. T. Beauregard to Charleston.
-
The U. S. Congress passes a proposed 13th Amendment stating that the Congress will not abolish or interfer with slavery where it exists.
-
Confederate batteries along the shore of Charleston Harbor fire on Fort Sumter under the command of Major Robert Anderson.
-
Lincoln asks for only three months of service from each volunteer.
-
After a duel with Confederate ships at English Turn, Commadore Farragut's fleet weighs anchor at New Orleans and demands the surrender of the largest city and most important port in the South.
-
First land engagement of the Civil War between American and Confederate forces.
-
About 25 miles southwest of Washington the first major battle of the Civil War
-
Confederate commissioners to London and Paris, is halted in the Bahama Channel by the U.S. warship San Jacinto.
-
General Ulysses S. Grant demands the unconditional surrender of the garrison from an old friend, Simon Bolivar Buckner.
-
The duel of the ironclads, The Monitor and The Merrimac.First use of a turreted gun.
-
Ulysses S. Grant defeats Albert Sidney Johnston in southwest Tennessee.P. G. T. Beauregard assumed command following Johnston's death
-
Jefferson Davis replaces wounded Army of Northern Virginia commander Joseph E. Johnston with Robert E. Lee.
-
John Bell Hood and George pickett breakthroughFitz John Porter's line, forcing union troops south of the Chickahominy River and severing McClellan's supply line to Eltham's Landing.
-
Robert E. Lee attacked George B. McClellan,whose men made a gallant stand in front of the James River. Lee called off his attack after failing to break the Union line.
-
General John Pope lost to General Robert E. Lee. General James Longstreet's 28,000 man assault on August 30 was the largest simultaneous assault of the war in this Confederate victory.
-
Stonewall Jackson takes 12,000 prisoners.
-
Army of the Potomac under McClellan defeats the Army of Northern Virginia under Lee, resulting in the bloodiest day in American history.
-
General Ambrose Burnside and the Army of the Potomac is soundly beaten by Lee's Army of North Virginia.
-
The Emancipation Proclamation goes into effect.
-
Abraham Lincoln relieves General Ambrose Burnside from command of the Army of the Potomac, replacing him with General Joseph "Fighting Joe" Hooker.
-
General "Fighting Joe" Hooker's Army of the Potomac is defeated by Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia as it crosses the Rappahannock on the way to Richmond.
-
West Virginia becomes the 35th state to enter the United States, but the first to enter where the terms slave and free no longer mattered.
-
General Robert E. Lee advances into Pennsylvania where he meets George Meade. First battling north of the city, by the second day Union forces had retreated south, forming a strong line as men arrived almost continuously. Bloodiest three day battle.
-
John Pemberton, commander of Confederate forces at Vicksburg asks Ulysses S. Grant for terms. Grant demands an unconditional surrender. Pemberton refuses. Late in the evening, Grant offers excellent terms and Pemberton accepts.
-
General Braxton Bragg tries to split General William Rosecransforces as they try to return to the safety of Chattanooga.
-
At the dedication of the National Cemetery in Gettysburg President Lincoln delivers a two-minute speech. Immediately following the speech he calls it a "flat failure." The speech is known today as the Gettysburg Address.
-
Three Union armies attacked the Army of Tennessee atop Missionary Ridge, east of downtown Chattanooga. Patrick Cleburne stopped William Tecumseh Sherman from the north, although outnumbered 10 to 1.
-
In a letter to Jefferson Davis, Bragg admits that he and Davis erred in leaving him in command after Chickamauga.
-
109 Union officers led by Colonel Thomas Rose escape from Libby Prison on the banks of the James River in Richmond. 59 reach Union lines.
-
Fitzhugh Lee traps Ulric Dalhgreen's cavalry following a raid on Richmond, killing Dahlgreen and 109 of his men.
-
U. S. Senate confirms Ulysses S. Grant as Lieutenant General.
-
Republican Michael Hahn is inaugrated governor of Louisiana.
-
Grant meets George Gordon Meade, commander of the Army of the Potomac, in Virginia.
-
Ulysses S. Grant is badly beaten on the field by Robert E. Lee but rather than retreat, Grant advances to Spotsylvania Court House.
-
Army of the James under General Benjamin Butler lands at Bermuda Hundred and City Point, east of Petersburg. The Army is comprised of two corps totaling nearly 40,000 men.
-
In an inconclusive battle, General Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee battle for days southwest of Fredericksburg.
-
Robert E. Lee defeats General Ulysses S. Grantand General George Meade.
-
18 Union ships sail past the entrance to Mobile Bay. The C. S. S. Tennessee, prize ironclad of the Confederate Navy awaited the attack.
-
On the River Queen five men, US President Abraham Lincoln, US Secretary of State William Seward, CS Vice-president Alexander Stephens, along with John Campbell and RMT Hunter discuss peace terms at the Hampton Roads Conference near Fort Monroe.
-
Lincoln outlines his second term talking directly to the Confederate people.
-
Confederates break Union line at Petersburg. General John B. Gordon captured Fort Stedman, a Union outpost on the line around besieged Petersburg, eventually punching a hole 3/4 of mile wide.
-
George Pickett could not withstand the federal envelopment move around Petersburg that began here.
-
After attempting to break-out of the Union envelopment, Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysess S. Grant at the home of Wilmer McLean in Appomattox Court House.
-
United States President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated on Good Friday by John Wilkes Booth in Ford's Theatre, Washington, D. C.
-
General Richard Taylor surrenders the remaining troops in Alabama and Mississippi based on an agreement signed two days earlier.
-
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton orders Union troops to stand guard at Ford's Theater to prevent it from reopening following the assasination of President Lincoln.
-
John T. Ford agrees to lease Ford's Theater to the War Department.
-
President Andrew Johnson appoints William Marvin provisional governor of Florida.
-
The first formal observation of President Lincoln's birthday is held in Washington, D. C. President Andrew Johnson attends.
-
New Freedman's Bureau bill passed by Congress. President Andrew Johnson vetoes the bill that authorized military trial for those accused of "depriving former slaves of the Civil Rights" on the same day.
-
Congress appropriates $100,000 to buy Ford's Theater. It will house the Army Medical Museum, the Office of the Surgeon General and War Department records until 1893.
-
Congress overrides President Andrew Johnson's veto of the Civil Rights Act.
-
Thirty-ninth Congress approves the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
-
Connecticut approves the 14th Amendment.
-
New Hampshire ratifies the 14th Amendment.
-
Tennessee ratifies the 14th Amendment. This quick ratification meant Tennessee would not suffer under 2nd Reconstruction.
-
Congress establishes "general of the armies" and Ulysses S. Grant is immediately promoted to 4-star general and put in this position. William Tecumseh Sherman assumes the rank of Lt. General.
-
The U. S. Secret Service begins an investigation into the Ku Klux Klan.
-
Ohio ratifies the 14th Amendment.
-
Kentucky rejects the 14th Amendment.
-
Blacks in Washington D. C. gain the right to vote in a bill passed over President Andrew Johnson's veto.
-
Virginia rejects the 14th Amendment.
-
Kansas ratifies the 14th Amendment.
-
Missouri ratifies the 14th Amendment.
-
Louisiana rejects the 14th Amendment.
-
Delaware rejects the 14th Amendment.
-
Nebraska becomes a state.
-
Federal army restores military rule to Mississippi.
