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Jefferson Davis comes out in favor of secession for the first time
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Overland mail between Sacramento, California and St. Joseph's, Missouri is carried over the Oregon Trail for eighteen months by this series of riders on horseback, then rendered obsolete when the transcontinental telegraph is completed. Service ended on October 24, 1861.
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Meet in Baltimore. It represents southern whigs.
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Abraham Lincoln was elected 16th President of the United States of America and stated he would abolish slavery in all states.
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Major Robert Anderson reports Fort Sumter is being threatened in Charleston as federal forces begin to improved Fort Moultrie and Fort Sumter in the harbor.
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Georgia calls for a convention of Southern states to form an independent nation.
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South Carolina becomes the first state to secede from the Union.
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The Convention of Seceded States adopts a provisional constitution forming the Confederate States of America
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Confederate forces attack on Fort Sumter which starts the beginning of the Civil War. At 4:30 a.m. Confederates under Gen. Pierre Beauregard open fire with 50 cannons upon Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina.
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The Civil War begins
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General Robert E. Lee resigns from the United States Army and becomes a commander in the Confederate Army because he cannot betray his homeland, family, and children,
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First land engagement of the Civil War between American and Confederate forces
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About 25 miles southwest of Washington the first major battle of the Civil War pits Irvin McDowell [US] against P. G. T. Beauregard [CS] and Joe Johnston [CS].
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Winfield Scott relieved from duty as Supreme Comander of the United States.
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Jefferson Davis is elected to a six year term as President of the Confederate States of America.
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USS Monitor, the first ship featuring a turreted center gun, is launched. The design changes naval warfare forever
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President Lincoln relieves George McClellan as General-in-Chief of the U. S. Army for having the slows.
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President Lincoln signs the Pacific Railway Act, incorporating the Union Pacific Railroad and subsidizing it with federal funds
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The term Copperhead is used for the first time in writing by the Cincinnati Gazette. It was used to indicate people who would not admit they were Southern sympathizers, and "peace at any price" Democrats
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Bloodiest day in American history
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Following the preemptive strike at Antietam President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves in states or portions of states still in rebellion
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West Virginia becomes the 35th state to enter the United States, but the first to enter where the terms slave and free no longer mattered.
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Ulysses S. Grant accepts the surrender of the second Confederate Army he has defeated, at Vicksburg
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At the dedication of the National Cemetery in Gettysburg President Lincoln delivers a two-minute speech.
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The U.S. Congress approves the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, to abolish slavery. The amendment is then submitted to the states for ratification.
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A peace conference occurs as President Lincoln meets with Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens at Hampton Roads in Virginia, but the meeting ends in failure
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For Lincoln
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The last offensive for Lee's Army of Northern Virginia begins with an attack on the center of Grant's forces at Petersburg
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Gen. Robert E. Lee surrenders his Confederate Army to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at the village of Appomattox Court House in Virginia.
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At 10:13 p.m., during the third act of the play, John Wilkes Booth shoots the president in the head. Doctors attend to the president in the theater then move him to a house across the street. He never regains consciousness.
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He eventually dies in a house across the street of Fords Theater after being shot in the head.
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John Wilkes Booth is shot and killed in a tobacco barn in Virginia.
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Abraham Lincoln is laid to rest in Oak Ridge Cemetery, outside Springfield, Illinois.
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The 13th Amendment is finally ratified.
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President Johnson vetos the Civil Rights Act of 1866 on the grounds that it was unconstitutional
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The United States declares that a state of peace exists with Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia
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Congress appropriates $100,000 to buy Ford's Theater. It will house the Army Medical Museum, the Office of the Surgeon General and War Department records until 1893
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Congress overrides President Andrew Johnson's veto of the Civil Rights Act
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Cholera epidemic begins in New York when an infected passenger arrives in New York.
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Winfield Scott dies, West Point, NY
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Congress establishes "general of the armies" and Ulysses S. Grant is immediately promoted to 4-star general and put in this position. William Tecumseh Sherman assumes the rank of Lt. General.
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Congress creates the rank of Admiral. David Farragut is appointed to that rank
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A proclaimation of peace with Texas is issued by United States President Andrew Johnson
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On the 6th anniversary of secession, South Carolina rejects the 14th Amendment
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Blacks in Washington D. C. gain the right to vote in a bill passed over President Andrew Johnson's veto
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Alexandria, Virginia rejects thousand of votes cast by Negroes, who were granted universal suffrage under the Reconstruction Act.
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General Philip Sheridan assumes command of the 5th Military district encompassing Louisiana and Texas. He designates New Orleans as his headquarters.
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Congress passes a bill admitting Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, and South Carolina into the Union.
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Edwin Stanton is replaced by Ulyses S. Grant
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Russia gives Alaskan Territory to the US