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On April 3, 1860, the Pony Express begins with Johnny Fry being the first rider. The first mail pony left from St. Joseph, Missouri. -
On July 7, 1860 Albert Hicks, a pirate convicted of murder, was hanged. He was hanged on Liberty Island in New York Harbor. -
On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln is elected sixteenth president of the United States. He became the first Republican president in the nation that opposes the spread of slavery. -
On November 10, 1860, Senator James Chesnut Jr. attended the South Carolina secession convention. There he was elected to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States. -
On November 11, 1860, Senator James Henry Hammond of South Carolina resigned from his seat in the United States Senate. During his time he delivered the first defense in Congress of the institution of slavery. -
On November 18, 1860, Georgia legislature appropriates about $1,000,000 to arm their state. This is because of the issues that have been occurring. -
On December 17, 1860 the Secession Convention took place. The main purpose for this convention was to decide whether Virginia should secede or not.
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On December 18, 1860 the Crittenden Compromise was created. It was a proposal to permanently enshrine slavery in the United States Constitution. -
On December 20, 1860, South Carolina secedes from the Union. They were the first state to leave out of 11 southern states. -
On December 26, 1860 Major Anderson Evacuates Fort Moultrie. Him and his troops evacuated because they recognized that Fort Moultrie was vulnerable to a land assault. -
On March 3, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as the sixteenth president of the United States in Washington, DC. -
On April 12, 1861, Southern forces fire upon Fort Sumter, South Carolina. The Civil War has formally begun. -
On April 15, 1861, President Lincoln issued a Proclamation calling for 75,000 militiamen, and called for a special session of Congress for July 4. -
On April 20, 1861, Robert E. Lee resigns his commission in the United States Army. From there Lee goes to Richmond, Virginia, is offered command of the military and naval forces of Virginia, and accepts. -
On June 10, 1861, the Battle of Big Bethel was the first land battle of the war in Virginia. -
On July 4, 1861, Lincoln, in a speech to Congress, states the war is..."a People's contest...a struggle for maintaining in the world, that form, and substance of government, whose leading object is, to elevate the condition of men...". The makes Congress authorize a call for 500,000 men to the army. -
On July 21, 1861, The Battle of Bull Run took place in Manassas, Virginia. The Confederate army one this battle. -
On August 10, 1861 in Wilson's Creek, Missouri, The Union Army under General Nathaniel Lyon, attack Confederate troops and state militia. The Confederate victory emphasizes the strong southern presence. -
On September 20, 1861, Lexington, Missouri falls to Confederate forces under Sterling Price. -
On November 1, 1861, President Lincoln appoints McClellan as general-in-chief of all Union forces after the resignation of Winfield Scott.Lincoln is confident in McClellan. -
On January 19, 1862, The Battle of Mill Springs in Kentucky took place. The Union won this battle as the Confederates weakened. -
On February 6, 1862 The south lost Fort Henry along the Tennessee River. This allowed the Union to control the river. -
On February 16, 1862 in Tennessee the Union won the Battle of Fort Donelson causing the Confederates to surrender the fort on the Cumberland River. This is also where General Ulysses S. Grant gained his nickname "Unconditional Surrender". -
On February 22, 1862, Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as President of the Confederate States of America. Before being inaugurated he served in the military and represented Mississippi. -
From April 6 to the 7 1862, in Tennessee, The Battle of Shiloh took place. This was the first major battle in Tennessee and the Union won this battle. -
On May 25, 1862, First Battle of Winchester took place in Virginia. General "Stonewall" Jackson attacks Union forces at Winchester and successfully drives them from the city. The Confederates won this battle. -
From June 25-July 1, 1862, The Seven Days' Battles before Richmond took place. There General Lee's army attacks the "Army of the Potomac" under General George McClellan. The battles began at Mechanicsville on June 26 and ended at Malvern Hill on July 1. -
On August 30-31, 1862, The Battle of Second Bull Run took place in the same place as the first. The Confederates won this battle. -
On September 17, 1862, The Battle of Antietam took place in Maryland. It was the bloodiest single day of the Civil War. It was General Lee's first invasion of the North but in the end the Union took the victory. -
On December 13, 1862, The Battle of Fredericksburg took place in Virginia. The Army of the Potomac was defeated by General Lee's forces after a risky river crossing and attacking of the city. -
On January 1, 1863, The Emancipation Proclamation goes into effect. The final Emancipation Proclamation frees all slaves in territories held by Confederates and emphasizes the enlisting of black soldiers in the Union Army. -
From May 1 till the 4, 1863, The Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia took place. This was General Lee's greatest victory and makes him now want to invade the north. -
On May 10,1863, The South suffers a huge blow as Stonewall Jackson dies from his wounds in the accidental shooting. He died 8 days after the two bullets hitting him. -
On June 3, 1863, General Lee took 75,000 Confederates and launched his second invasion of the North. Him and his troops headed into Pennsylvania in a campaign that soon lead to Gettysburg. -
On June 9, 1863, The Battle of Brandy Station, Virginia took place. The Union army crossed the Rapidan River to attack General J.E.B. Stuart. It was the largest cavalry battle of the Civil War. -
On August 21, 1863, The Sacking of Lawrence, Kansas took place. The Confederates and Missouri stormed into Lawrence and destroyed most of the town. About 150 men and boys were killed. -
From September 19 to the 20 of 1863, The Battle of Chickamauga, Georgia took place. The Union Army of the Cumberland under General William Rosecrans is defeated by the Confederate Army of Tennessee commanded by General Braxton Bragg. -
From November 19 to December 4, 1863, Siege of Knoxville, Tennessee took place. The Confederate troops seized the city of Knoxville that was held by Union forces. The Confederates attacked on November 30th. The Union won this battle. -
From November 23 to 25, 1863, The Battle for Chattanooga took place. The Union won this battle and sent the Confederates south into Georgia. -
On December 8, 1863, Lincoln issued his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction. This would help the people who participated in the "existing rebellion" that vow to the Union. -
On February 17, 1864, The First Successful Submarine Attack of the Civil War took place. The CSS H.L. Hunley, a seven-man submergible craft, attacked the USS Houstonic outside of Charleston, South Carolina. The Hunley was lost and was later discovered in 1995. -
On April 9, 1864, The Battle of Pleasant Hill, Louisiana took place. The Union army defeated the Confederate forces. It also drove the Confederates out of Louisiana. -
On April 12, 1864, The Capture of Fort Pillow, Tennessee took place. The Confederates attacked the Union and defeated them along the Mississippi River. -
On May 4 till the 5 of 1864, Battle of the Wilderness, Virginia took place. This was the opening battle of the "Overland Campaign" or "Wilderness Campaign". The Union army overall won the battle but both sides suffered many casualties. -
From June 1 till the 3 of 1864, The Battle of Cold Harbor, Virginia took place. The Union army failed to remove Lee's army from their strong line of defense northeast of Richmond. -
On June 8, 1864, Abraham Lincoln was nominated by his party for a second term as president. He was still the most popular among the Republican party. -
On June 10, 1864, The Battle of Brice's Crossroads, Mississippi took place. Even though the Confederates were outnumbered the attacked the Union and defeated them. -
On July 17, 1864, General John Bell Hood replaced General Joseph Johnston as commander of the Army of Tennessee. This created a new Confederate strategy n the Sherman's campaign. -
On October 19, 1864, The Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia took place. the Confederate army won this battle and drove the troops of the Army of the Shenandoah from their camps on the banks of Cedar Creek south of Middletown, Virginia. -
From December 15 till the 16 of 1864, The Battle of Nashville, Tennessee took place. The Confederate Army under John Bell Hood were defeated. -
On February 22, 1865, Wilmington, NC, falls to Union troops. This also closed the last southern port on the east coast. -
On March 4, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated for his second term as president in Washington, DC. This was the 20th inauguration of a president. -
On March 25, 1865, the attack on Fort Stedman, Petersburg, Virginia took place by the Confederates. The Confederates attacked and captured the Union fort for a little bit before the Union fought back and regained control. -
On April 1, 1865, the Battle of Five Forks, Virginia took place. The Union won this battle and it made General Lee abandoned the Petersburg-Richmond siege lines. -
April 2, 1865 was the fall of Petersburg and Richmond. This happened because General Lee abandoned both cities and moved his army west in hopes of joining Confederate forces under General Johnston in North Carolina. -
On April 6, 1865, the Battle of Sailor's Creek took place in Virginia. Ulysses S. Grant and the Union troops overall won the battle. -
On April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated by actor John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln was assassinated at Ford's Theater in Washington, DC. -
On April 26, 1865, General Joseph Johnston signs the surrender document for the Confederate Army of the Tennessee and the southern troops. They surrendered to the remaining Union troops. -
On May 26, 1865, General Edmund Kirby Smith , the commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi division, surrenders to the union. This ended the Civil War. -
On December 6, 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution which was passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, was finally ratified. This amendment meant that slavery is abolished. -
In January of 1866, a fictional work named 'Crime and Punishment' was Published. This was the second of Dostoevsky's most important, mature fictional works. -
On February 13, 1866, The Robbery Of The Clay County Savings Association took place. These culprits were mostly likely in the first daylight armed bank robbery in the United States in peacetime. -
On March 13, 1866, the Civil Rights Act was passed. This was the first federal legislation to protect the rights of African-Americans. -
On March 28, the 1st ambulance went into service. The first ambulance was based out of Cincinnati, Ohio. -
On April 1, 1866, the US Congress rejected the presidential veto. This meant that they were giving all equal rights in US. -
On May 4, 1866 in Chicago, the Haymarket Affair or the Haymarket Riot took place. This was a violent confrontation between police and labor protesters that showed the struggle for worker's rights. -
On July 24, 1866, Tennessee becomes the first Confederate state to be readmitted into the Union. They were a volunteer state. -
On August 20, 1866, the National Labor Union enforces for an eight-hour work day. It was created to pressure Congress to enact labor reforms. -
On July 28, 1866, The Fourteenth Amendment was ratified and adopted. It was adopted after the Civil War as one of the Reconstruction Amendments. -
On November 20, 1866, Deacon Henry Brewster created Howard University. Also on this day they resolved to establish a seminary for the training of African-American preachers. -
On February 7, 1867, Laura Elizabeth Ingalls was born. She was the author of the beloved semi-autobiographical Little House series. -
On March 1, 1867, Nebraska is the 37th State Admitted to the Union. This is after John C. Fremont explored the plains and mountains of the western United States. -
On March 30, 1867, the Alaska Purchase Treaty was signed. This was after the end of Russian efforts to expand trade and settlements to the Pacific coast of North America. -
On March 30, 1867, Seward's Folly of the United States agreed to purchase Alaska from Russia for 7.2 million dollars. This later came to be known as "Seward's folly." -
On April 9, 1867, The United States Senate ratifies the Alaska Purchase Treaty. It was by a vote of 37 to 2. -
On April 16, 1867, Wilbur Wright was born. He was born near Millville, Indiana and was apart of the famous Wright brothers. -
On May 7, 1867, Alfred Nobel obtains a patent for dynamite in England. Later on, he developed a safe, cheap, efficient storage means for his dynamite powder. -
On May 23, 1867, Jesse James and his gang rob a bank. They conducted bank robberies for over the next two years after. -
On October 18, 1867, the Alaska Transfer Ceremony took place. The Russian and American soldiers paraded in front of the governor's house and the Russian flag was lowered and the American flag was raised. -
On December 18, 1867, The Angola Horror took place. This was a train wreck where a train crossed the bridge over Big Sister Creek, the last car jumped and derailed, causing it to swing and crash into the gorge below.
