Civil War Timeline

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    Mexico Abolished Slavery

    espite peaceful cooperation between Anglos and Tejanos, differences over cultural issues intensified between Anglos and the Mexican government. The overwhelmingly Protestant Anglo settlers spoke English instead of Spanish. Furthermore, many of the settlers were Southerners, who had brought slaves with them to Texas. Mexico, which had abolished slav- ery in 1829, insisted in vain that the Texans free their slaves.
  • Missouri Compromise

    A series of agreements that stated Maine was admitted as a free state and Missouri as a slave state. The rest of the Louisiana Territory was split into two parts. South of the line, slavery was legal. North of the line (except in Missouri)slavery was banned.
  • Oregon Trail

    The Oregon Trail stretched from Missouri, all the way to Oregon City, Oregon. It was made in 1836 by two Methodist missionaries named Narcissa Whitman and Marcus. They drove there wagon as far as Fort Boise, they proved wagons could travel on the Oregon Trail.
  • Manifest Destiny

    The phrase manifest destiny was inspired by the belief that the United States was destine to expand to the Pacific Ocean and into Mexican and Native American territory.
  • Santa Fe Trail

    Santa Fe Trails was one of the busiest routes settlers and traders who made the move to the west. They used a series of old Native American trails as well as new routes. This one in particular stretched 780 miles from Independence, Missouri, to Santa Fe in the Mexican province of New Mexico. Each spring from 1821 to the 60s, American traders loaded their covered wagons with goods and went off to Santa Fe
  • Battle at Vicksburg

    In the spring of 1863, Grant began to weaken the Confederate defenses that protected Vicksburg. Not much after Grant was able to land his troops south of Vicksburg. Immediately after he sent his men in search of Confederate troops in Mississippi. The Confederate command of Vicksburg asked Grant for terms of surrender. The Union had achieved another of its major military objectives, and the Confederacy was later cut in two
  • Battle at Gettysburg

    In southern Pennsylvania, near the town of Gettysburg a battle arose on July 1st of 1863. This battle started when Confederate soldiers come in contact with several brigades of Union cavalry led by John Burford. Burford ordered his men to take defensive positions on the hills and ridges surrounding the town. By the end of the first day at battle 90,000 Union troops were under the command of General George Meade and had taken the field against 75,000 Confederates, led by General Lee.
  • Gettysburg Address

    In November of 1863 Lincoln changed the way the U.S. saw itself. He gave a speech held at a ceremony in Gettysburg. The speech changed the way people thought, after the a little more than two minute speech people saw the U.S as a union rather than a collection of states.
  • Sherman's March

    In the spring of 1864 Sherman's march took hold. Sherman and his army marched southeast through Georgia and seas.While making this path, his men burned houses, livestock and destroyed railroads. By the end of it they had burned most of Atlanta and convinced the north to help Grant “wipe out Lee.”
  • Surrender at Appomattox Court House

    On April 9th, 1865 in Virginia the surrender at Appomattox court house took place. Both Grant and Lee met at a private home and to organize the confederate surrender and at Lincoln’s request, the terms were generous.
  • Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

    On April 14 1865 Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth while attending the play Our "American Cousin" at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Booth's intended to revive the Confederate.
  • Thirteenth Amendment

    Near the end of 1865 The U.S. Constitution added an Amendment that stated “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly con- victed, shall exist within the United States.”