-
Dred Scott Case
"After Emerson’s death in 1846, Scott sued for his freedom, claiming that his journey to free soil had made him free. He lost this case in the state courts. Scott then ended up in the possession of John Sanford, a New York abolitionist, who assisted in taking his case to the federal courts since the matter now involved a dispute between the residents of different states. The case eventually reached the Supreme Court where a decision was reached in 1857." -
Period: to
civil war timeline
-
Abraham Lincoln Elected
"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: Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, Constitutional Union candidate John Bell, and Northern Democrat Stephen Douglas, a U.S. senator for Illinois." -
South Carolina secedes
"The tug has to come and better now, than any time hereafter," wrote President-elect Lincoln in response to the movements among Southerners toward making good their threat to remove themselves from the United States if he were elected". -
Confederate States Are Formed
"Formed in February 1861, the Confederate States of America was a republic composed of eleven Southern states that seceded from the Union in order to preserve slavery, states’ rights, and political liberty for whites. Its conservative government, with Mississippian Jefferson Davis as president, sought a peaceful separation, but the United States refused to acquiesce in the secession". -
Fort Sumter Attacked
"The attack on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861 marked the beginning of the American Civil War. With the bombing of cannons over the harbor in Charleston, South Carolina, the secession crisis gripping the country escalated into a shooting war." -
Virginia Secedes
"On April 17, 1861, Many delegates, especially those from the eastern counties of Virginia felt that Lincoln's decision to use force was an act of war. The leaders of the Confederate Army was so grateful for Virginia's support, they immediately moved the capital of the Confederacy from Montgomery, Alabama, to Richmond, Virginia" -
Proclamation blockade
"Whereas an insurrection against the Government of the United States has broken out in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, and the laws of the United States for the collection of the revenue cannot be effectually executed there in comformably to that provision of the Constitution which requires duties to be uniform throughout the United States" -
Battle of Antietam
"The Army of the Potomac, under the command of George McClellan, mounted a series of powerful assaults against Robert E. Lee’s forces near Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17, 1862." -
Emancipation Proclamation
"One of the most important acts of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency was his issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation. It consists of two executive orders issued September 22, 1862 that declared the freedom of all slaves in any state of the Confederate States of America that did not return to Union control by January 1". -
Battle of Shiloh
"On the morning of April 6, 1862, 40,000 Confederate soldiers under the command of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston poured out of the nearby woods and struck a line of Union soldiers occupying ground near Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River." -
Battle of Gettysburg
"Having concentrated his army around the small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Gen. Robert E. Lee awaited the approach of Union Gen. George G. Meade’s forces. On July 1," -
Frederick Douglas meets with President Lincoln
"Frederick Douglass first met with Mr. Lincoln in the summer of 1863 and as he later recalled. Saw at a glance the justice of the popular estimate of his qualities expressed in the prefix Honest to the name Abraham Lincoln." -
Lincoln Re - Elected
"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. Any hope for a negotiated settlement with the Confederacy vanished". -
Thirteenth amendment
"The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, In Congress, it was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, and by the House on January 31, 1865. The amendment was ratified by the required number of states on December 6, 1865. On December 18, 1865, Secretary of State William H. Seward proclaimed its adoption".
