-
The first election of President Abraham Lincoln.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Confederate States of America is formed and Jefferson Davis is named its President.
-
April 14, 1865
At 4:30 AM Confederates under General Pierre Beauregard open fire with 50 cannons upon Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. The Civil War begins. -
The surrender of Fort Sumter to the Confederacy.
-
-
-
-
-
The Union Army under Gen. Irvin McDowell suffers a defeat at Bull Run 25 miles southwest of Washington. Confederate Gen. Thomas J. Jackson earns the nickname "Stonewall," as his brigade resists Union attacks. Union troops fall back to Washington.
-
General Ulysses S. Grant gets Union victories at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in Tennessee.
-
March 8, 1862 to March 9,1862
The Confederate Ironclad 'Merrimac' sinks two wooden Union ships then battles the Union Ironclad 'Monitor' to a draw. Naval warfare is thus changed forever, making wooden ships obsolete.This took place at Hampton Roads. -
April 6, 1862 to April 7, 1862
Confederate surprise attack on Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's at Shiloh on the Tennessee River. Ends with 13,000 Union killed and wounded and 10,000 Confederates, -
April 24, 1862
David Farragut and the Union Navy saptures the seaport of New Orleans. -
General Robert E. Lee is given command of the Army of Northern Virginia.
-
June 25, 1862 to July 1, 1862
Lee attacked McClellan near Richmond. The result was very heavy losses for both armies. McClellan then withdrawals back toward Washington. -
August 29, 1862 to August 30, 1862
75,000 Federals under Gen. John Pope are defeated by 55,000 Confederates under Gen. Stonewall Jackson and Gen. James Longstreet at the second battle of Bull Run in northern Virginia. The Union Army retreats to Washington. -
The bloodiest day in U.S. military history as Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Armies are stopped at Antietam in Maryland by McClellan and numerically superior Union forces. By nightfall 26,000 men are dead, wounded, or missing. Lee then withdraws to Virginia.
-
President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation.
-
Army of the Potomac under Gen. Burnside suffers a costly defeat at Fredericksburg in Virginia with a loss of 12,653 men after 14 frontal assaults on well entrenched Rebels on Marye's Heights. Confederate losses are 5,309.
-
The Union enacts or passes a law creating the first military draft of men into the army.
-
May 1,1863 to May 4,1863
The Union Army under Gen. Hooker is decisively defeated by Lee's much smaller forces at the Battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia as a result of Lee's brilliant and daring tactics. Hooker retreats. Union losses are 17,000 killed, wounded and missing out of 130,000. The Confederates, 13, 000 out of 60,000. -
Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson dies.
-
July 1, 1863 to July 3, 1863
The Confederates are defeated at the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. -
Vicksburg, the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi
July 4, 1863
River, surrenders to Gen. Grant and the Army of the West after a six week siege. With the Union now in control of the Mississippi, the Confederacy is effectively split in two, cut off from its western allies. -
Late in Feburary the opening of the Confederate war camp in Andersonville.
-
May 5, 1864 to May 7, 1864
The Battle of the Wilderness was the first battle of Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's 1864 Virginia Overland Campaign against Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War. -
May 8, 1864 – May 21, 1864
Following the Battle of the Wilderness, Grant marched the Union army south with the hope of capturing Spotsylvania Court House. Lee's Confederates, however, managed to get ahead of the Federals and block the road. For the next two weeks, the two armies slugged it out in some of the fiercest fighting of the Civil War. The result was inconclusive. -
May 31, 1864 to June 12, 1864
Second Battle of Cold Harbor: May 31-June 12, 1864. In early May 1864, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant (1822-85) launched his Overland campaign, in which his Army of the Potomac clashed with Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia in a series of battles in Virginia. The confederate Army won. -
June 9, 1864 – March 25, 1865
During the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant’s Army of the Potomac and Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia collide for the last time as the first wave of Union troops attacks Petersburg, a vital Southern rail center 23 miles south of the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. The two massive armies would not become disentangled until April 9, 1865, when Lee surrendered and his men went home. -
Presdient Lincoln is re-elected for a 2nd term.
-
Union Gen. William T. Sherman burns Atlanta, GA. to the ground and begins his March to the Sea.
-
Union General William T. Sherman finishes his March to the Sea and captures Savannah, GA.
-
The Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia falls or is captured by the Union army.
-
The Confederacy and Gen. Robert E, Lee surreder to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, VA.
-
Presdient Lincoln dies and Vice Presdient Andrew Johnson takes over as Presdient of the U.S.
