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Period: to
Civil War
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Formation of Confederacy
South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union, then asked the other slave states to join together to form a new nation. They called it the Confederate States of America. They had three reasons for leaving the Union: they felt the United States thought they had broken the Constitution, had failed to enforce the Fugitive Slave Laws, and the government would not allow slavery in the new territories. -
Attack at Fort Sumter
Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina, looking for supplies. On April 13 Major Robert Anderson surrendered the fort and it was evacuated the next day. No soldiers were killed in battle, but the terms of surrender allowed Anderson to perform a 100-gun salute before he and his men evacuated the fort. -
Writ of Habeas Corpus
A writ of habeas corpus is a court order that requires an arrested person to be brought before a judge. It ensures that a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention. In response to the riots and the threat that Maryland would succeed, Lincoln used a writ of habeas corpus. -
First Battle of Bull Run
It was fought in Prince William County, Virginia, near the city of Manassas. The Northern public wanted to march against the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. Gen. McDowell led his Union army across Bull Run against Confederate army of Gen. Beauregard. McDowell's plan for a surprise attack on the Confederates was poorly executed, but the Confederates were still at a disadvantage. -
Naval War
A short war in which Lincoln tried to cut off Southern ports. However, the South resisted and therefore Lincoln failed. The naval force of each army also provided troops with supplies and medical care to carry out the war as planned. It introduced the first iron clad ships, and important part of history. -
Battle of Fort Donelson
This battle was fought in the Western Theater of the Civil War. The capture of the fort by Union forces opened the Cumberland River, which was important for the invasion of the South. Grant moved his army to Fort Donelson and conducted many attacks. U.S. Navy gunboats under Officer Foote attempted to reduce the fort with naval gunfire, but were forced to withdraw after heavy damage from Donelson's water batteries. The success of Grant's army elevated him to the rank of major general. -
Battle of Shiloh
Forty thousand Confederate soldiers under the command of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston attacked a line of Union soldiers occupying ground near Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River. The Confederates drove the Union soldiers from their camps and threatened Ulysses S. Grant’s command. Confederates surrounded the Union troops and captured, killed, or wounded most of them. -
Second Battle of Bull Run
It was a campaign waged by Confederate Gen. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia against Union Gen. Pope's Army of Virginia. It was a battle of much larger scale than the First Battle of Bull Run fought in 1861. Jackson attacked a Union column near Gainesville. On that same day, the wing of Lee's army broke through Union resistance in the Battle of Thoroughfare Gap and approached the battlefield. -
Battle of Antietam
It was fought near Sharpsburg, Maryland, and Antietam Creek as part of the Maryland Campaign. It was the first major battle in the American Civil War to take place on Union soil and the bloodiest single-day battle in American history. After pursuing Gen. Lee into Maryland, Gen. McClellan launched attacks against Lee's army. On September 17, Gen. Hooker's corps mounted a powerful assault on Lee's left flank. -
Emancipation Proclamation
It was an executive order issued by President Lincoln on as a war measure during the Civil War, to all segments of the executive branch. It proclaimed the freedom of slaves in the ten states that were still in rebellion. This proclamation was based on the president's authority as commander in chief, instead of being passed by Congress. -
Battle of Cold Harbor
This battle was one of the final battles of Gen. Grant's Overland Campaign during the Civil War. On May 31, Grant's army attacked the right flank of Lee's army and seized the crossroads of Old Cold Harbor, holding it until the Union infantry arrived. The armies confronted each other until the night of June 12, when Grant again advanced, marching to the James River -
Petersburg
Union forces missed an opportunity to capture Petersburg. After capturing it, they wanted to cut off the Confederate rail lines. As a result, a nine month siege of Petersburg began when Gen. Grant's forces surrounded Gen. Lee's army. -
Election of 1864
The candidates were Abraham Lincoln on the Republican side and George McClellan on the Democratic side. Lincoln was re-elected as president. He won by more than 400,000 popular votes. He was the first president to be re-elected since Adrew Jackson. -
Atlanta falls to North
Sherman pushed the Confederates from the Mississippi River to the northeast. Meanwhile, Grant pushed south. While going through each city, they burned everything to attempt to scare the Confederates into surrendering. -
Battle of Nashville
It was a two-day battle in the Franklin-Nashville Campaign that represented the end of large-scale fighting in the Western Theater of the Civil War. It was fought in Nashville, Tennessee between the Army of Tennessee under General John Bell Hood and federal forces under General George Thomas. Thomas attacked and routed Hood's army, and also destroyed it so that it wasn't an effective fighting force anymore. -
13th Amendment
On January 31 Congress passed the 13th Amendment. This amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime, throughout the US. It was the first of the three Reconstruction Amendments adopted after the Civil War. -
Peace Conference
A peace conference occurred as President Lincoln met with Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens at Hampton Roads in Virginia. The meeting ended with the decision that the war would continue. Only Lee's Army at Petersburg and Johnston's army in North Carolina stayed to fight for the South against Northern forces. -
End of Siege of Petersburg
The last offense for Lee's Army of Northern Virginia began with an attack on Grant's forces at Petersburg, Virginia. Four hours later the Confederate attack was ended. This attack was basically nine months of trech warfare, but it came to an end in March of 1865. -
Surrender at Appomattox Courthouse
General Lee abandoned the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia and retreated west, hoping to join his army with the Confederate forces in North Carolina. Union forces pursued and cut off the Confederate retreat at Appomattox Court House. Lee launched an attack to break through the Union force to his front, but then was forced to surrender to Grant and Sheridan. -
Assassination of Lincoln
President Lincoln was shot in the back of his head by John Wilkes Booth on April 14. Booth was waiting for him at the back of Ford's theatre. After the assassination, Johnson took over as president.