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Jefferson Davis comes out in favor of secession for the first time.
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(April 3, 1860 to October 26, 1861) The Pony Express was a system of mail service by relays of riders on horses, established in 1860 between Missouri and California, through the Rocky Mountains. It operated for only a year and a half, until a telegraph line eliminated the need for it.
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This democratic convention was held in Charleston, SC over the issue of slavery. This is also where the nominations for the 1860 Presidential election were chosen.
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Southern delegates hold a National Democratic convention in Richmond. Party leaders urge a "wait and see" approach.
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The Democrats reconvene in Baltimore to select a nominee, but Douglas can't make the necessary 2/3 majority until the anti-Douglas delegates leave on June 22 and the floor rules are changed to require 2/3 vote of the members present. On June 23rd the Convention nominates Stephen Douglas and Herschal V. Johnson.
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President Buchanan vetoes the Homestead Bill, which divides his Democratic party, clearing the way for Abraham Lincoln's election.
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Southern Democrats hold a convention in Richmond where they select John C. Breckinridge as their nominee for President.
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On the 6th of November, 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States by obtaining 180 electoral votes. Winning 39% of the popular vote, he became chief of the Party of Republicans.
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This compromise sought to resolve the secession crisis between 1860 and 1861. It addressed the fears and grievances about slavery that led many slave-holding states to contemplate secession from the United States.
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South Carolina officially secedes from the Union, becoming the first state to do so.
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After the secession of South Carolina, other southern states began to secede from the Union as well. Mississippi quickly followed in the secession from the Union on January 9, 1861.
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On day after the secession of Mississippi, Florida takes on the trend and parts from the Union.
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One day after Florida, Alabama secedes from the Union as well, leaving the South with only three more members of the Union.
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Georgia decides to secede from the Union as well only days after Alabama on January 19, 1861. Louisiana seceded from the Union on January 26, 1861. Texas seceded a few days after on February 1, 1861.
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Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as the sixteenth President of the United States. In his Inaugural Address he gives a stark warning to the South: he will not tolerate secession.
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The Constitution of the Confederate States of America is signed in Montgomery, Alabama.
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Confederate forces under General P.G.T. Beauregard bombard Major Robert Anderson and his Union soldiers at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. The Civil War officially begins.
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Major Robert Anderson surrenders Fort Sumter to Confederate forces after two days of bombardment.
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Lincoln addresses Congress and requests the enlistment of a Union Army. Congress authorizes a call for 500,000 men. It is clear now that the war will not be short.
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The First Battle of Bull Run pits Union General Irvin McDowell against the new Confederate army. McDowell is defeated causing a panicked retreat back to Washington, which is about forty miles away. The withdrawal is hampered by the large numbers of spectators who are there to see the battle.
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General Ulysses S. Grant and his troop attacks Fort Donelson, Tennessee and captures it the next day.
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Jefferson Davis is officially inaugurated in Richmond, Virginia, to a 6-year term as president of the Confederate States of America.
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The U.S. federal government forbids all Union army officers from returning fugitive slaves, thus effectively annulling the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 and setting the stage for the Emancipation Proclamation.
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Union General Ulysses S. Grant's forces are surprised at the town of Shiloh in Tennessee. The ensuing battle results in 13,000 Union and 10,000 Confederate casualties, more than in all previous American wars combined.
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General Robert E. Lee assumes command of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.
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Over the course of seven days of fighting, General Robert E. Lee attacks George McClellan's Union Army of the Potomac near Richmond, Virginia. Huge casualties cause McClellan to withdraw north towards Washington.
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The Second Battle of Bull Run is a resounding victory for Confederate General Stonewall Jackson. Union General John Pope is blamed for the loss and is relieved of his duties after the battle.
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The Battle of Antietam is the bloodiest day in United States history. Over 26,000 men are killed, wounded or missing in action on both sides. Though officially a draw, the battle stops General Robert E. Lee's invasion of Maryland and he retreats back to Virginia.
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The president replaces McClellan with Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside as the new Commander of the Army of the Potomac. Lincoln had grown impatient with McClellan's slowness to follow up on the success at Antietam, even telling him, "If you don't want to use the army, I should like to borrow it for a while."
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The Union Army under General Ambrose E. Burnside suffers a horrible defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg in Virginia. Fourteen individual assaults on an entrenched Confederate position cost the Union 13,000 casualties.
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Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation. It frees all slaves in territory captured by the Union Army, and orders the enlistment of black soldiers. From this point forward, the Civil War is a war over slavery.
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Abraham Lincoln relieves General Ambrose Burnside from command of the Army of the Potomac, replacing him with General Joseph "Fighting Joe" Hooker.
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Over the course of three days, General Robert E. Lee divides his army in the face of a larger enemy, and manages to defeat the Union Army led by "Fighting" Joe Hooker. The North suffers 17,000 casualties, the South 13,000.
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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.
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Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson dies from wounds sustained when he was mistakenly shot by his own troops at Chancellorsville.
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From July 1 to July 4, the Union Army under General Meade defeats Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. One of the bloodiest battles of the war, Gettysburg is a turning point, and marks the farthest advance of the Confederate Army into northern territory.
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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. On the third day, the infamous Pickett's Charge marked the end of the Confederates hope for a victory.
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John C. Pemberton, commander of Confederate forces at Vicksburg asks Ulysses S. Grant for terms. Grant demands an unconditional surrender which Pemberton refuses. Late in the evening, Grant offers excellent terms and Pemberton accepts.
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Far to the West on the Mississippi River, General Ulysses S. Grant takes Vicksburg after a long siege. At this point, the Union controls the entire river, cutting the Confederacy in two.
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President Lincoln delivers the two-minute Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the National Cemetery at the battlefield in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
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The first Northern prisoners arrive at the Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia (the 500 prisoners had left Richmond, Virginia, 7 days before).
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Lincoln appoints Ulysses S. Grant commander of all Union armies, ending his long search for a decent general to command northern forces. General William T. Sherman takes over as commander in the West.
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The Siege of Petersburg ends as Ulysses S. Grant's army breaks through Confederate lines and marches towards Richmond.
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Beginning a drive aimed at ending the war, Ulysses S. Grant and 120,000 troops march south towards Richmond, the Confederate capital. Over the course of the next six weeks, a brutal war of attrition results in the deaths of nearly 50,000 Union soldiers.
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(May 8-May 12) Continuing his advance, Union General Ulysses S. Grant attacks Robert E. Lee's Confederate forces at Spotsylvania. Grant loses more soldiers than Lee. Still, General Lee is forced to retreat south.
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(June 1-June 3) The bloody battle of Cold Harbor was a disaster for the Union. General Ulysses S. Grant made a series of tactical mistakes that result in the deaths of 7,000 Union in twenty minutes.
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A costly mistake by Grant results in 7,000 Union casualties in twenty minutes during an offensive against fortified Rebels at Cold Harbor in Virginia.
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With the beginning of the Siege of Petersburg, south of Richmond, the mobile war of the past month ends, replaced by a nine-month siege.
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(November 15 to December 21, 1864) Sherman's March to the Sea, more formally known as the Savannah Campaign, was a military campaign of the American Civil War conducted through Georgia from November 15 to December 21, 1864 by Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman of the Union Army.
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The Confederate Army of the Tennessee is crushed by the Union Army of the Cumberland in Nashville. The war in the West is nearly over.
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The United States Congress approves the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which will abolish slavery.
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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. The conference was a failure.
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Tennessee adopts a new constitution that abolishes slavery.
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Lincoln is sworn in for his second term as President of the United States on the 4th of March, 1865.
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The Union Army captures Richmond, Virginia, which is nearly leveled by shelling and fire.
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Confederate President Jefferson Davis and most of his Cabinet flee the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, which is taken by Union troops the next day.
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General Robert E. Lee surrenders to General Ulysses S. Grant in a farmhouse in the town of Appomattox Court House, Virginia. The war is over.
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Abraham Lincoln is shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. Lincoln does not regain consciousness after being shot at Ford's Theater and dies from his wound.
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General Joe Johnston, leading the largest Confederate Army still in existence, surrenders in North Carolina.
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Lieutenant General Richard Taylor, commanding all Confederate forces in Alabama, Mississippi, and eastern Louisiana, surrenders his forces to Union General Edward Canby at Citronelle, Alabama, effectively ending all Confederate resistance east of the Mississippi.
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New Freedman's Bureau bill passed by Congress. President Andrew Johnson vetoes the bill that authorized military trial for those accused of "depriving Negroes of the Civil Rights" on the same day
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Texas repeals the actions of the Secessionist Convention.
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President Johnson vetos the Civil Rights Act of 1866 on the grounds that it was unconstitutional.
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The United States declares that a state of peace exists with Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia
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Congress overrides President Andrew Johnson's veto of the Civil Rights Act.
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The Civil Rights Act of 1866 granted citizenship despite Johnson's veto and the same rights enjoyed by white citizens to all male persons in the United States "without distinction of race or color, or previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude."
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Lieutenant General Richard Taylor, commanding all Confederate forces in Alabama, Mississippi, and eastern Louisiana, surrenders his forces to Union General Edward Canby at Citronelle, Alabama, effectively ending all Confederate resistance east of the Mississippi.
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Congress approves the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which addresses citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws, and was proposed in response to issues related to former slaves following the American Civil War.
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Congress overrides Andrew Johnson's veto of the Freedman's Bureau bill.
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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.
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The John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge opens between Cincinnati, Ohio and Covington, Kentucky, becoming the longest suspension bridge in the world.
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African-American men are granted the right to vote in the District of Columbia under US consent.
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Nebraska is admitted as the 37th U.S. state.
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In March 1867 the new Congress passed, over Johnson's veto, the first of the Reconstruction acts, providing for suffrage for male freedmen and military administration of the Southern states. The Reconstruction Acts of 1867 laid out the process for readmitting Southern states into the Union. The Fourteenth Amendment (1868) provided former slaves with national citizenship, and the Fifteenth Amendment (1870) granted black men the right to vote.
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Alaska is purchased for $7.2 million from Alexander II of Russia, about 2 cent/acre ($4.19/km²), by United States Secretary of State William H. Seward. The news media call this "Seward's Folly."
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A Sioux and Cheyenne war party kills U.S. Second Lieutenant Lyman Kidder, along with an Indian scout and ten enlisted men in Kansas.
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The first elevated railroad in USA begins service in New York.
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Near Medicine Lodge Creek, Kansas, a landmark treaty is signed by southern Great Plains Indian leaders. The treaty requires Native American Plains tribes to relocate to a reservation in western Oklahoma.
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Former Minnesota farmer Oliver Hudson Kelley founds the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry (better known today as The Grange).
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In a New York City theater, British author Charles Dickens gives his first public reading in the United States.
