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On this day, a secession convention meeting in Charleston, South Carolina, unanimously adopted an ordinance dissolving the connection between South Carolina and the United States of America. South Carolina was the first state to secede.
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Lincoln had just been elected but South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas had seceded because of the election, before the new President had even assumed office. Alan Pinkerton had already decided to assasinate Lincoln.
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Since 1858 there has been a coflict between the north and south about slavery. This was the first battle of the civil war.
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Virginia secedes. Virginia was the 11 state to secede.
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The Union army generaled by Irvin Mcdowell gets defeated by the confederates. The general of the Confederate Army was Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson
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Gen. Irvin Mcdowell was taken away from the position of general. George B. McClellan is now oppionted the General of the Union Army
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McClellan's Army of the Potomac advances from Washington down the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay.
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Confederate surprise attack on Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's unprepared troops at Shiloh on the Tennessee River results in a struggle with 13,000 Union killed and wounded and 10,000 Confederates.
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Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's Army attacks McClellan's troops at Richmond, Virginia and were almost defeated. however Gen. Johnson was harshly wounded.
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General Robert E. Lee attacks McClellan near Richmond. This resulted in heavy losses for both armies. McClellan withdrawls to Washington.
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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. Once again the Union Army retreats to Washington.
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General Robert E. Lee and Confederate Armies are stopped by McClellan at Antietam in Maryland. 26,000 men were either dead, wounded, or missing.
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Lincoln 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
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Gen. Burnside takes a terrible loss at Fredericksburg in Virginia with a loss of 12,653 men. Confederate losses are 5,309.
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President Lincoln issues the final Emancipation Proclamation freeing all slaves in territories held by Confederates.
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Gen. Hooker is defeated by Lee's small army at the Battle of Chancellorsville. This was a result Lee's brilliant and daring tactics. The Union lost 17,000 killed, wounded or missing out of 130,000. The Confederates, 13, 000 out of 60,000.
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The war turns against the South as the Confederates are defeated at the Battle of Gettysburg.
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Lincoln delivers a two minute Gettysburg Address at a ceremony dedicating the Battlefield as a National Cemetery.
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President Lincoln appoints Gen. Grant to command all of the armies of the United States. Gen. William T. Sherman succeeds Grant as commander in the west.
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Atlanta is captured by Sherman's Army. The victory greatly helps President Lincoln's bid for re-election.
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After destroying Atlanta's warehouses and railroad facilities, Sherman, with 62,000 men begins a March to the Sea. Sherman reaches Savannah in Georgia leaving behind a 300 mile long path of destruction 60 miles wide all the way from Atlanta.
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The Thirteenth Amendment is approved by Congress to abolish slavery.
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Gen. Robert E. Lee surrenders his Confederate Army to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at the village of Appomattox Court House in Virginia. Grant allows Rebel officers to keep their sidearms and permits soldiers to keep horses and mules.
