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Civil War Begins (Ft. Sumter)
With Lincoln elected as president, tensions between the North and South took a turn and 6 southern states officially succeeded from the U.S. and elected Jefferson Davis. Fort Sumter was a northern fort located in South Carolina. Many officials demanded the residents of Ft. Sumpter leave, but they refused without orders from Lincoln. The crisis reached a boiling point, and on April 12, 1861, the C.S.A. fires at the fort and thus begins the Civil War. -
Battle of Antietam
In 1862, the general of the South Robert E. Lee launched an invasion into Maryland. To counter to this, President Lincoln assigned general George McClellan to stop the invasion and beat the Confederates. Although the Union had many more troops, McClellan's fear with his troops lead this to be a more close battle, and resulted in the bloodiest day of the Civil War with 23,000 casualties, but did result in the retreat of the South. Lincoln used this win to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. -
End of Civil War (Appomattox Courthouse)
The South were struggling with providing shoes, food, and many other important necessities to their troops. Many were suffering and with so many huge losses General Lee surrendered. So, both sides agreed to meet in Appomattox Courthouse within a home and discuss the terms of the surrender. The North were surprisingly very lenient and just wanted the south to return into the Union. -
Lincoln's Assassination
While President Lincoln was attending a play in Ford's Theatre, a man named John Wilkes Booth launched his successful assassination attempt. He was a previous actor of the theatre, so he was recognizable and not seen as a stranger. Sadly, the officer who was supposed to be on guard wasn't there and Booth had a straight walk to Lincoln and shot him in the back of the head while he was sitting watching the play. He then escaped but later was caught. Lincoln died shortly after the shot. -
Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson was the Democrat who took office after the death of Lincoln. He was also a white supremacist and this meant he disagreed with a lot of what Congress wanted to do, which was help the former slaves as much as they could. He would try to veto almost every bill in their favor, and it get overruled by Congress. Eventually Congress set a trap for Johnson by issuing the "Tenure of Office Act" which Johnson almost immediately broke, and resulted in his impeachment. -
Compromise of 1877 (End of Reconstruction)
Within the election of 1876, there was an almost direct tie between the Republicans and the Democrats. This meant that the vote had to go to Congress, and the Democrats proposed a compromise. They proposed that the Publican party win the election and allow Rutherford B. Hayes to be President, in exchange for the end of Reconstruction, to which they accepted and thus ended Reconstruction.
