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The South Carolina legislature enacted an "ordinance" that "the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States is hereby dissolved by a vote of 169-0. -
Lincoln promised not to interfere with the institution of slavery where it existed, and pledged to suspend the activities of the federal government temporarily in areas of hostility. -
Confederate forces occupied Fort Sumter and used it to marshal a defense of Charleston Harbor. Once it was completed and better armed, Fort Sumter allowed the Confederates to create a valuable hole in the Union blockade of the Atlantic seaboard. -
Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus between Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia to give military authorities the necessary power to silence dissenters and rebels. Under this order, commanders could arrest and detain individuals who were deemed threatening to military operations. -
About 5,000 people, mostly poor women, broke into shops and began seizing food, clothing, shoes, and even jewelry before the Militia arrived to restore order. Tens of thousands of dollars worth of items were stolen. -
The First Battle of Bull Run, also known as the Battle of Manassas, marked the first major land battle of the American Civil War. -
Jefferson Davis was elected president of the Confederate States of America. He was elected to serve for a six-year term and has been serving as the temporary president for almost a year. -
Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack, also called Battle of Hampton Roads in the American Civil War, notable as history's first duel between ironclad warships and the beginning of a new era of naval warfare. -
The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburgh Landing and was one of the major early engagements of the American Civil War. The battle began when the Confederate Army launched a surprise attack on Union forces under General Ulysses. -
Originally called the Confederate Army of the Potomac, the confederate forces were renamed the Army of Northern Virginia when Robert E. Lee assumed command on June 1. -
Antietam, the deadliest one-day battle in American military history, showed that the Union could stand against the Confederate army in the Eastern theater. It also gave President Abraham Lincoln the confidence to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. -
The Battle of Fredericksburg was a major defeat for the Union Army. The entire Battle of Fredericksburg resulted in 12,653 Union casualties and 4,201 Confederate casualties. -
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." -
The Battle of Gettysburg was the largest battle of the American Civil War as well as the largest battle ever fought in North America. This involved around 85,000 men in the Union's Army. It ended with a victory for Union General George Meade and the Army of the Potomac. -
The Battle of Chancellorsville resulted in a Confederate victory that stopped an attempted flanking movement by Maj. -
The two men parted with only an agreement to a brief cease-fire. He offered parole to Pemberton and his army, which the Confederate general accepted. -
Draft Riot of 1863, major four-day eruption of violence in New York City resulting from deep worker discontent with the inequities of conscription during the U.S. Civil War. -
Lincoln delivered the address on November 19, 1863. He was in Gettysburg to dedicate a national military cemetery to the Union soldiers who fell at the Battle of Gettysburg four months earlier. -
In the midst of the American Civil War, incumbent President Abraham Lincoln of the National Union Party easily defeated the Democratic nominee, former General George B. McClellan, by a wide margin of 212–21 in the electoral college, with 55% of the popular vote. -
Atlanta was used as a center for military operations and as a supply route by the Confederate army during the Civil War. Therefore, it also became a target for the Union army. General William Tecumseh Sherman and his troops captured the city in 1864. -
The purpose of Sherman's 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. -
The 13th amendment, which formally abolished slavery in the United States, passed the Senate on April 8, 1864, and the House on January 31, 1865. -
Congress passed “An Act to establish a Bureau for the Relief of Freedmen and Refugees” to provide food, shelter, clothing, medical services, and land to displaced Southerners, including newly freed African Americans. -
President Abraham Lincoln spoke of mutual forgiveness, North and South, asserting that the true mettle of a nation lies in its capacity for charity. Lincoln presided over the nation's most terrible crisis. -
Lee decided to surrender his army in part because he wanted to prevent unnecessary destruction to the South. When it became clear to the Confederates that they were stretched too thinly to break through the Union lines. -
Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865, while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. He was shot in the head and died the following day -
John Wilkes Booth is killed when Union soldiers track him down to a Virginia farm 12 days after he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. -
The Rebel capital of Richmond, Virginia, falls to the Union, the most significant sign that the Confederacy is nearing its final days. For ten months, General Ulysses S. Grant had tried unsuccessfully to infiltrate the city. On April 2, the Yankees struck all along the Petersburg line, and the Confederates collapsed.
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