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Jefferson Davis comes out and openly admits his favor of secession for the first time.
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Abraham Lincoln gives his Cooper Institute speech against the spread of slavery.
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Southern Democrats nominate Vice President John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky for President.
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Abraham Lincoln, Republican candidate of Illinois wins the 1860 Presidential Election against Stephen Douglas. Lincoln obtained 39% of the popular vote and 180 electoral votes.
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James Chestnut becomes the first Southerner to resign from Senate. He is quickly followed by James H. Hammond.
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At the end of a his pro-secession speech, Robert Toombs announces his resignation from the U.S. Senate at the end of his term.
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Major Robert Anderson of the First United States Artillery, a 55 year old army officer, was ordered to take command of Fort Moultrie and the defenses in Charleston Harbor, including Fort Sumter.
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Lewis Cass tenders his resignation as Secretary of State over President Buchanan's refusal to reninforce federal troops in Charleston.
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Senator John J. Crittenden of Kentucky proposes the Kentucky Compromise. Its main features are a constitutional amendment that would reinstate the Missouri Compromise line between free and slave territory and retention of the fugitive slave law and slavery where it existed, including in the District of Columbia. On January 16, 1861, the Crittenden Compromise is effectively defeated in the United States Senate.
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South Carolina convention comittee offically approves the Ordinance of Secession, stating that their consititutional rights were ratified and repealed, and the union between them and the other states under the name "United States of America" was dissolved.
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Four congressmen resign from the House of Representatives, their letters of resignation being presented on December 24th. However their names remain on the roll to indicate that secession is not recognized.
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Mississippi becomes the second state to secede from the Union.
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The Confederate States of America is formed with Jefferson Davis, a West Point graduate and former U.S. officer, as president.
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Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as provisional president of the Confederate States of America.
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Abraham Lincoln is sworn in as the 16th President of the United States of America.
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The Confederate States of America demand the Union to surrender. Lincoln refuses to abandon the fort. The Confederacy attack Fort Sumter and seize it. Lincoln decides to go to war.
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President Lincoln calls for 75,000 volunteers for the war after the surrender of Fort Sumter.
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After the effect of the surrender of Fort Sumter and Lincoln calling for 75,000 volunteers pushed the Virginia Convention to vote. The votes came out 88 to 55 to submit an ordinance of secession. Virignia secedes from the United States.
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President Lincoln issues a Proclamation of Blockade against Southern ports. This stated for the duration of the war the blockade limits the ability of the rural South to stay well supplied in its war against the industrialized North.
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The Union army under General Irvin McDowell suffer a defeat at the Battle of Bull Run, 25 miles outside of Washington D.C. Confederate General Thomas Jackson earns the nickname "Stonewall" as his brigade resists Union attacks. Union troops fall back to Washington.
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President Lincoln appoints George McClellan as Commander of the Department of the Potomac, replacing McDowell. McClellan was a West Point graduate at age fifteen and outstanding general, but suffered from the "slows" and often overthought his battles.
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Union army led by General Ulysses S. Grant captured two Confederate forts in Tennessee named Fort Henry and Fort Donelson. Fort Donelson was captured ten days later. This was an important victory. Ulysses S. Grant earns his nickname, "Unconditional Surrender."
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President Lincoln loses his son, William "Willie" Wallace Lincoln, who dies at the age of eleven from fever.
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Confederates attempt to defeat General Grant's army of 40,000 in Tennessee before a second string of 25,000 men would be brought in the next day of the battle. Grant was nearly defeated but saved on the second day, April 7 1862, when Buell arrived with more men able to counter attack, forcing Confederates to retreat. General A.S Johnson of the Confederacy died at this battle.
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After a duel with Confederate ships at English Turn, David G. Farragut's fleet weigh anchor at New Orleans and demand the surrender of the largest city and most important port in the South. By the time Farragut leaves the city was partially on fire.
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Jefferson Davis replaces wounded Army of Northern Virginia commander Joseph E. Johnston with Robert E. Lee.
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The week long Confederate counter-offensive near Richmond, Virginia. Lee's forces attacked Union forces at Mechanicsville. The Union forces were victorious but McClellan ordered a withdraw to Gaines' Mill. The next day, Confederate forces broke the Union line. McClellan ordered another withdrawl. Three more battles were fought, in which Confederate troops were slaughtered. However, in the end McClellan decided to withdraw all of his troops to Harrison Landing.
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Lee's Confederate troops win a resounding victory at the second Battle of Bull Run.
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Lee attempts to invade the north with his army heading towards Harpers Ferry, near Washington. But his forces are no match for McClellan's 90,000 Union Army soldiers, who then pursue Lee and his men.
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General Robert E. Lee's army invaded Maryland and decided to surround and capture Harpers Ferry. He divided his army into four columns. On September 15, Union commander Col. Miles surrendered the garrison of more than 12,000. He was mortally wounded. Jackson took posession of Harpers Ferry, then led most of his soldiers to join Lee at Sharpsburg.
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The bloodiest single day battle in American history occurs in Antietam, Maryland when General Robert E. Lee and the Confederate army are stopped by McClellan and other superior Union forces. By nightfall, 26,000 men are dead, wounded or missing. Lee withdraws to Virginia.
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With victory at Antietam, President Lincoln announces that on January 1, 1863 all slaves in the rebelling states would be free. This does not affect bordering states. It also forces European nations to recognize that choosing sides in the Civil War is to take a stand on slavery.
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Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation which freed all slaves behind Confederate lines. It did not apply to slave states still in the union. Compromise was no longer possible after the Emancipation Proclamation.
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President Lincoln signed The Enrollment Act on March 3, 1863, requiring the enrollment of every male citizen and those immigrants who had filed for citizenship between ages twenty and forty-five. Federal agents established a quota of new troops due from each congressional district.
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Lee and Jackson conceive what is known as the boldest plans of the war. Jackson, with 30,000 Confederates, would follow a circuitous route to the Union right and from there conduct an attack on that exposed flank. The May 2, 1863 flank attack stunned the Union XI corps and threatened Hooker’s position, but the victorious Confederate attack ended with the mortal wounding of Stonewall Jackson who is shot by his own men when mistaken for a Union soldier. He later dies.
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After being wounded at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Thomas Jackson as the result of his wounds.
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The three day battle started when General Lee concentrated his army around Union General Meade and his troops. Confederates drove Union defenders through Gettysburg to Cemetery Hill. The next day Lee struck flanks at the Union army. Southerners gained ground but failed to disloge Union host. The final day, the Union regained high ground. Lee attacked the center and suffered from what is known as Pickett's Charge. The North had won. This battle was a turning point for the war.
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The last Confederate strong hold surrenders to General Grant and the Army of the West after six weeks of battling. With the Union now in control of Mississippi, the Confederacy is effectively split in two, cut off from its western allies.
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Anti draft riots start in New York and last until the 16th. Events include arson and the murder of blacks by poor immigrant whites. At least 120 people, including children, are killed, and $2 million in damage is caused, until Union soldiers return from Gettysburg to return order.
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President Lincoln meets with Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave and abololitionist who pushes for equality for Union 'Negro troops.'
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Pro-Confederate William C. Quantrill and a mob of his followers raid the town of Lawrence, Kansas, and massacre nearly 200 boys and men.
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President Lincoln delivers a two minute speech, later known as the Gettysburg Address honoring the fallen troops at the three day battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. They dedicated the battlefield as a National Cemetery.
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109 Union officers led by Colonel Thomas Rose escape from Libby Prison on the banks of the James River in Richmond. 59 reach Union lines.
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A horrifying event in the war occurred when a brush fire breaks out in the woods between two armies trapping hundreds of wounded men who are burned alive there in full view and earshot of their helpless comrades.
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William T. Sherman left Tennessee with 10,000 troops. He marches to Atlanta, Georgia. He the marched from Atlanta to the Atlantic Ocean. During this 300 mile march, Sherman's soldiers burned and destroyed everything they passed in a width of 60 miles.
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Grant kept moving towards Lee's army after Spotsylvania. They fought the South at Cold Harbor in an advance upon Richmond. After many casualties the Union called off the attack.
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After Union forces fail to capture St. Petersburg, and cut off Confederate rail lines, Grant's troops begin a nine month siege on Lee's army.
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The number of Federal prisoners held in the 26 and a half stockade at Andersonville Prison reaches 32,000. This is the largest number held in the military prison at any one time during the war. Nearly 13,000 will die from disease, malnurition, poor sanitation and overcrowding.
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Sherman takes Atlanta. This victory by the Army of the West plays a key role in Lincoln's campaign for re-election.
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Abraham Lincoln is re-elected president, defeating Democratic George B McClellan. Lincoln carries all but three with 55 percent of the popular vote and 212 out of 233 electoral votes
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After marching through Georgia for a month, Sherman storms Fort McAllister and captures Savannah eight days later.
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General George H. Thomas and 55,000 Federals, which include "Negro troops", defeat John B. Hood's Confederate Army of Tennessee at Nashville.
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Sherman's army capture Columbia, the state capital of South Carolina.
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General Grant and General Meade's Army moved to the south of Richmond. During the winter the Union army was attacked many times but could not break through. After nine months General Lee was forced to retreat toward Lynchburg giving up both Petersburg and Richmond. The Confederate burned Richmond before leaving to keep the Union forces from getting supplies.
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With his army dissolving around him, Lee receives a note from Grant asking him to surrender. Lee begins to consider it.
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General Robert E. Lee surrenders his Confederate troops to Ulysses S. Grant at the village of Appomattox Court House in Virginia. Grant allows Rebel officers to keep their sidearms and permit soldiers to keep horses and mules.
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President Lincoln and his wife, Mary attend a play "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theatre. During the third act of the play, John Wilkes Booth, a southern actor, snuck into Lincoln's box and shot him in the back of the head and escaped. Doctors tend to Lincoln and take him to a home across the street. He never regains consciousness.
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After escaping from Ford's Theatre and accomplishing an assasination and somehow managing to escape, John Wilkes Booth is found at a tobacco barn, shot and killed in Virginia.
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Jefferson Davis is found and captured in Georgia.
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200,000 men from the Army of the Potomac and Sherman's Army of Georgia march in review through Washington.
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Remaining Confederate forces surrender. The nation starts to reunite as the war ends. 50,000 survivors return home as amputees.
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The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution passed by Congress on January 31, 1865 is finally ratified. Slavery is abolished.
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The first formal observation of President Lincoln's birthday is held in Washington, D.C. President Johnson attends.
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President Johnson vetos the Civil Rights Act of 1866 on the grounds that was unconstitutional.
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The United States declares a state of peace exists with Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
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White civilians and police kill 46 African Americans and destroy 90 houses, schools, and four churches in Memphis, Tennessee.
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The 14th Amendment is passed in both houses. The 14th Amendment grants full citizenship to blacks, gives the Federal government the responsibility to protect equal rights under the law to all American citizens.
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Tennessee is the first former Confederate state readmitted to the Union.
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Police kill more than 40 black and white Republicans wound more than 150.
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The National Union Convention is held in Philadelphia with hopes to reconcile the Radical Republicans in Congress with the Reconstructionist policies of Preisdent Andrew Johnson.
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President Johnson goes on his Swing Around the Circle speaking tour to gain support for his Reconstructionist policies and Democratic Party candidates in the upcoming elections.
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Despite Andrew Johnson's Swing Around the Circle tour, the Republican Party wins the election by a landslide.
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African American men are granted the right to vote in the District of Columbia.
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Nebraska is admitted to the United States as the 37th state.
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Congress passes the 2nd Reconstruction Act, over riding President Johnson's veto.
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Blacks vote in municipal election in Tuscumbia, Alabama.
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Reconstruction in the South begins. It begins with the registering of Black and white voters in the South. General Philip H. Sheridan ordered registration to begin in Louisiana on May 1st and continue until June 30th. Registration begins in Arkansas in May. Other states followed in June and July. By the end of October, 1,363,000 citizens had registered in the South including 700,000 Blacks.
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Jesse James, a well known bank robber, robs yet another bank in Savannah Missouri. He robs the Judge John McClain Banking House with 5 other men, his gang.
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Congress divides the former Confederacy into five military districts and requires elections in which African American men can vote. Passed over Johnson's veto.
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President Johnson vetos yet another Reconstruction Act from Congress. Congress overrules him and passes the act. It gave the five union general overlooking the south superior power. They had the power to remove any official from office.
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The United States and Russia come to an agreement, in which the United States receives Alaska. The United States takes formal possession of Alaska.
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U.S. Congress commission look into "impeachment" of President Andrew Johnson, who defied Congress and suspended the Secretary of War.
