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Lincoln's First Election
Abraham Lincoln is elected the 16th president of the United States over a deeply divided Democratic Party, becoming the first Republican to win the presidency. Lincoln received only 40 percent of the popular vote but handily defeated the three other candidates. -
South Secedes
South Carolina is the first state to seceded on December 20th, 1860. In February 1861 Mississippi, Flordia, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas seceded. Lastly Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, Tenessee. -
Confederate States of America Established
n February 1861, representatives from the six seceded states met in Montgomery, Alabama, to formally establish a unified government, which they named the Confederate States of America. On February 9, Jefferson Davis of Mississippi was elected the Confederacy's first president. -
Writ of Habeas Corpus Suspended
John Merryman, a state legislator from Maryland, is arrested for attempting to hinder Union troops from moving from Baltimore to Washington during the Civil War and is held at Fort McHenry by Union military officials. His attorney immediately sought a writ of habeas corpus so that a federal court could examine the charges. However, President Abraham Lincoln decided to suspend the right of habeas corpus, and the general in command of Fort McHenry refused to turn Merryman over to the authorities. -
First Income Tax
Congress levied new taxes on almost all goods and services; and in 1861 the government levied a new income tax for the first time with rates that eventually rose 10% on incomes above $5,000. -
1st Battle of Bull Run
The First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas) was the first major land-based confrontation of the American Civil War. The Union army commander in Washington, Brigadier General Irvin McDowell, gave in to great pressure to begin campaigning before his men’s 90-day enlistments expired, although he did not feel the army was adequately trained yet, leading to a stunning Confederate victory and ending northern hopes of a quick end to the war. - See more at: http://www.historynet.com/battle-of-bull-run#sthas -
1st Confiscation Act
Enacted by Congress and signed by President Lincoln on August 6, 1861, the Confiscation Act of 1861 declared fugitive slaves used or employed in aiding, abetting, or promoting war against the United States to be contraband and stripped the proprietors of such slaves to their rights to ownership. -
Trent Fair
On November 8, 1861, Charles Wilkes, a U.S. Navy Officer, captured two Confederate envoys aboard the British mail ship, the Trent. Great Britain accused the United States of violating British neutrality, and the incident created a diplomatic crisis between the United States and Great Britain during the Civil War. -
Monitor V. Merrimac
Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack, also called Battle of Hampton Roads, (March 9, 1862), in the American Civil War, naval engagement at Hampton Roads, Virginia, a harbour at the mouth of the James River, notable as history’s first duel between ironclad warships and the beginning of a new era of naval warfare. -
Shiloh
In the first day of fighting the Southerners drove Grant back to the river. But the next day Grant recovered the lost ground and forced Beauregard to whithdraw. This was a narror Union Victory -
Capture of New Orleans
The capture of this vital southern city was a huge blow to the Confederacy. Southern military strategists planned for a Union attack down the Mississippi, not from the Gulf of Mexico. In early 1862, the Confederates concentrated their forces in northern Mississippi and western Tennessee to stave off the Yankee invasion.The Confederacy lost a major city, and the lower Mississippi soon became a Union highway for 400 miles to Vicksburg, Mississippi. -
Homestead/ Morrill Land Grant Acts
The Homestead Act of 1862 permitted any citezen or prospective citizen to claim 160 acres of public land and to purchase it for a small fee after living on it for 5 years. The Morrill Land Grant Act of the same year transfered substantial public acrage to the state governments, which were to sell the land and use the procedes to finance public education. -
2nd Confiscation Act
Congress passed the Second Confiscation Act, which extended the power of the Union military to free slaves in the Confederacy. The Union military granted freedom to blacks escaping to Union lines and enlisted them in ancillary positions. -
Harper's Ferry
As Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia advanced into Maryland in the fall of 1862, Lee hoped to capture the vital Union garrison and arsenal at Harpers Ferry. Although Gen. George McClellan and the Army of the Potomac was in pursuit, in a bold maneuver Lee divided his army,Jackson then took possession of Harper’s Ferry before joining the rest of Lee’s army at Sharpsburg, leaving Gen. A.P. Hill’s division at the garrison to continue the parole of prisoners. -
Antietam
Instead of attacking quickly before the confederates could recombined, McClellan delayed and gave Lee time to pull most of his forces together behind Antietam Creek, near the town of Sharpssburg. On September 17th was the bloodiest single day engagement of the war. Technically it was a union victory, but in reality it was an oppertunity squandered. -
Emancipation Proclimation
On January 1st, 1863 Abraham Lincoln formally signed the Emancipation Proclomation, which declared forever free the slaves in all areas of the Confederacy, except those already under union control. -
National Draft Law Instated
March 1863, Congress was forced to pass the national draft law. Virtually all young adult males would be elligible to be drafted, but s ,sm could escape service by hiring someone to take his spot, and pay the governmnet $300 -
Vicksburg
In May and June of 1863, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s armies converged on Vicksburg, investing the city and entrapping a Confederate army under Lt. Gen. John Pemberton. On July 4, Vicksburg surrendered after prolonged siege operations. -
Capture of Atlanta
The Battle of Atlanta was fought on July 22, 1864, just southeast of Atlanta, Georgia. Union forces commanded by William T. Sherman, wanting to neutralize the important rail and supply hub, defeated Confederate forces defending the city under John B. Hood. After ordering the evacuation of the city, Sherman burned most of the buildings in the city, military or not. After taking the city, Sherman headed south toward Savannah, beginning his Sherman’s March To The Sea. -
Lincoln's Re-election
On this day in 1864, Northern voters overwhelmingly endorse the leadership and policies of President Abraham Lincoln when they elect him to a second term. With his re-election, any hope for a negotiated settlement with the Confederacy vanished. -
Sherman's March to the Sea
From November 15 until December 21, 1864, Union General William T. Sherman led some 60,000 soldiers on a 285-mile march from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia. The purpose of this “March to the Sea” was to frighten Georgia’s civilian population into abandoning the Confederate cause. Sherman’s soldiers did not destroy any of the towns in their path, but they stole food and livestock and burned the houses and barns of people who tried to fight back. -
Thirteenth Amendment
The 13th Amendment to the Constitution declared that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." Formally abolishing slavery in the United States, -
Capture of Richmond
On the evening of April 2, the Confederate government fled the city with the army right behind. Now, on the morning of April 3, blue-coated troops entered the capital. Richmond was the holy grail of the Union war effort, the object of four years of campaigning. Tens of thousands of Yankee lives were lost trying to get it, and nearly as many Confederate lives lost trying to defend it. -
Surrender at Appomattox
Harried by Federal troops and continually cut off from turning south, Lee headed west, eventually arriving in Appomattox County on April 8. Heading for the South Side Railroad at Appomattox Station, where food supplies awaited, the Confederates were cut off once again and nearly surrounded by Union troops near the small village of Appomattox Court House. Despite a final desperate attempt to escape, Lee’s army was trapped. General Lee surrendered his remaining troops to Grant -
Lincoln's Assassination
On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor and Confederate sympathizer, fatally shot President Abraham Lincoln at a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. The attack came only five days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his massive army at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the American Civil War.
