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Republican Party is formed
19th century. In 1854, the Republican Party was founded in the Northern United States by forces opposed to the expansion of slavery, ex-Whigs, and ex-Free Soilers. The Republican Party quickly became the principal opposition to the dominant Democratic Party and the briefly popular Know Nothing Party. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act passed
It became law on May 30, 1854. The Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise, created two new territories, and allowed for popular sovereignty. -
Abraham Lincoln elected president
Lincoln took office following the 1860 presidential election, in which he won a plurality of the popular vote in a four-candidate field. Almost all of Lincoln's votes came from the Northern United States, as the Republicans held little appeal to voters in the Southern United States. -
South Carolina votes to secede from the United States
South Carolina became the first state to secede from the federal Union on December 20, 1860. The victory of Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 presidential election triggered cries for disunion across the slaveholding South -
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Jefferson Davis elected president of the Confederacy
Jefferson Davis was elected as the president of the COnfederacy on February 9, 1861. After the southern states seceded from the union, they formed their own government called the Confederate States of America and Facis became their leader. He served as the president throughout the American Civil war, which lasted from 1861 to 1865. -
Confederate forces fire on Fort Sumter
At 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861, Confederate troops fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina's Charleston Harbor. -
Richmond becomes the capital of the Confederacy
May 8, 1861, in the Confederate Capital City of Montgomery, Alabama, the decision was made to name the City of Richmond, Virginia as the new Capital of the Confederacy. The Confederate capital was moved to Richmond in recognition of Virginia's strategic importance. -
First Battle of Bull Run is fought
The first land battle of the Civil War was fought on July 21, 1861, just 30 miles from Washington—close enough for U.S. senators to witness the battle in person. Southerners called it the Battle of Manassas, after the closest town. -
The Merrimac and the Monitor fight of the Virginia coast
While the battle was inconclusive, the Monitor's action's prevented the destruction of the Union navy. The Merrimack's machinery is restored, and her wooden superstructure is replaced with an iron-covered citadel mounting 10 guns. -
The Battle of Shiloh
The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, was a major battle in the American Civil War fought on April 6–7, 1862. The fighting took place in southwestern Tennessee, which was part of the war's Western Theater -
Robert E. Lee is named commander of the Army of Northern Virginia
1862 On June 1 Lee is given command of the Army of Northern Virginia, the main Confederate army in the eastern theater of the war. Union troops are poised at the gates of Richmond. Lee commences a series of counterattacks at the Seven Days Battle that drives the enemy away from the Confederate capital. -
Battle of Antietam
The Battle of Antietam also called the Battle of Sharpsburg, particularly in the Southern United States, took place during the American Civil War on September 17, 1862, between Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and Union Major General George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac near Sharpsburg, Maryland, and Antietam Creek. -
Lincoln suspends habeas corpus
In 1862, President Lincoln issued Presidential Proclamation 94 which suspended the writ of habeas corpus. (The writ of habeas corpus is a tool preventing the government from unlawfully imprisoning individuals outside of the judicial process). -
Battle of Fredericksburg
The Battle of Fredericksburg was fought December 11–15, 1862, in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia, in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. -
Emancipation Proclamation is announced
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, 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." -
Battle of Chancellorsville
The Battle of Chancellorsville, April 30 – May 6, 1863, was a major battle of the American Civil War, and the principal engagement of the Chancellorsville campaign -
Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg was a three-day battle in the American Civil War fought between Union and Confederate forces between July 1 and July 3, 1863, in and around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania -
Confederates surrender at Vicksburg
The war can never be brought to a close until that key is in our pocket.” The Vicksburg Campaign began in 1862 and ended with the Confederate surrender on July 4, 1863. -
New York City draft riots
The New York City draft riots (July 13–16, 1863), sometimes referred to as the Manhattan draft riots and known at the time as Draft Week, were violent disturbances in Lower Manhattan, widely regarded as the culmination of working-class discontent with new laws passed by Congress that year to draft men to fight in the ongoing American Civil War. -
Lincoln gives his Gettysburg Address
The Gettysburg Address was a speech given by President Abraham Lincoln on November 19, 1863, at the official dedication of the Soldiers National Cemetery (now called the Gettysburg National Cemetery) at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. -
congress passes the 13th amendment
Only through the Thirteenth Amendment did emancipation become national policy. It was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, and by the House on January 31, 1865. The joint resolution of both bodies that submitted the amendment to the states for approval was signed by President Abraham Lincoln on February 1, 1865. -
Atlanta is captured
William T. Sherman's troops at Atlanta was repulsed with heavy losses. Hood and Sherman continued to battle for the crucial Confederate city throughout the summer until Hood was finally forced to abandon Atlanta to Union forces on September 1, 1864 -
Abraham Lincoln defeats George McClellan to win re-election
It was held on Tuesday, November 8, 1864. Near the end 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. For the election, the Republican Party and some Democrats created the National Union Party, especially to attract War Democrats. -
Sherman begins his March to the Sea
The March to the Sea, the most destructive campaign against a civilian population during the Civil War (1861-65), began in Atlanta on November 15, 1864, and concluded in Savannah on December 21, 1864. Union general William T. -
Freedman’s Bureau is created
On March 3, 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. -
Lincoln gives his second inaugural address
President Lincoln (center at the podium) giving his Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865 (Library of Congress) In his Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865, a re-elected President Abraham Lincoln wanted to unify a broken nation. -
Richmond falls to the Union Army
Richmond was important to the Union in that its capture would signal the end of the Confederacy. Richmond fell when Lt. General Grant attacked Five Forks on March 31, 1865, to cut Lee's last remaining supply line. -
Robert E. Lee surrenders at Appomattox
The Confederate Army's retreat moved southwest along the Richmond & Danville Railroad. Lee desperately sought a train loaded with supplies for his troops but encountered none. Grant, realizing that Lee's army was running out of options, sent a letter to Lee on April 7 requesting the Confederate general's surrender. -
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President Lincoln assassinated
President Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865. He was shot by John Wilkes Booth while attending a play at Ford's theatre in Washington, D.C. It was a tragic event that occured just days after the end of the American Civil War -
John Wilkes Booth is killed
Killed by a gunshot wound during a standoff with law enforcement.