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The Misssissippi Senator preformed a speech about slavery, and his goals to protect the foundation of slavery. -
Lincoln gave a Cooper Union Address speech in NYC. -
The Pony Express was an American express mail service that used relays of horse-mounted riders. It operated from April 3, 1860, to October 26, 1861, between Missouri and California. -
Former Whig party members and American members met at Baltimore to create the Constitutional Union Party -
The U.S. government establishes the Government Printing Office. -
Abraham Lincoln was elected as the president of the United States. -
President James Buchanan delivered his State of the Union Address. -
The first Secession Convention is held in South Carolina -
The Crittenden Compromise was an unsuccessful proposal to permanently enshrine slavery in the United States Constitution, and thereby make it unconstitutional for future congresses to end slavery. It was introduced by United States Senator John J. Crittenden -
The State of South Carolina Secedes from the United States of America. -
Missisipi parts ways from the Union -
Florida Secedes from the Union -
Alabama secedes from the Union. -
Georgia secedes and leaves the Union -
Louisiana parts with the Union. -
The Confederacy in the United States was formed by all of the different states that had seceded. -
President Abraham Lincoln is inducted into office, and is now the official president of the United States. -
Forces from the Confederacy made an attack shelling on the Union fortress, Fort Sumter. No is killed. -
The genius general, Robert E. Lee joined the confederate army. -
The very bloody and important battle of the war was The Battle of Bull Run. It gave a glimpse into the horror of what the war was going to be. -
The politician Jefferson Davis is elected leader of the Confederate States of America. -
Fort Henry was captured by the Union. First major Union victory of the war. -
This was a very deadly battle in Tennesee. There were high casualties on both sides, but it was a Union victory. -
A major naval movement by the Union in New Orleans. Resulted in an important Union victory. -
A two-day battle in the Peninsular Campaign, in which Confederate attacks were repulsed, fought 6 miles (10 km) east of the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia. -
President Lincoln signed into law the Pacific Railway Act, which established a public-private partnership, and commenced a ten year project to build a railroad to the Pacific Ocean. -
Despite heavy Confederate casualties, the Battle of Second Bull Run was a decisive victory for the rebels, as Lee had managed a strategic offensive against an enemy force twice the size of his own -
The Battle of Antietam was a Union victory. The Union lost approximately 12,400 men to the Confederate's 10,700, but the Union had driven the Confederates from the field and ended the Confederate invasion. The battle was Ohioan George McClellan's greatest success during the American Civil War. -
Lincoln threatended to free all the enslaved people in the rebel states if the states did not return to the Union by January 1, 1863. -
One day after the congressional mid-term elections, U.S. president Abraham Lincoln relieved Union general George B. McClellan of his duties for multiple failures and having "The Slows" -
Confederate victory. The Union Army of the Potomac suffered more than 12,500 casualties. Lee’s Confederate army counted approximately 6,000 losses. The Federals retreated, losing an opportunity to advance further into Confederate territory and capture the capital of Richmond. -
Lincoln issues the final Emancipation Proclamation, officially allowing black soldiers and sailors into Union forces -
In the Bear River Massacre, the US Army attacks a Shoshone encampment in present-day Idaho led by Chief Bear Hunter killing hundreds. -
Territories in the Arizona region are organized into the Arizona Territory -
Cherokee Nation abolishes slavery; declares support for the Union -
On February 25, 1863, President Lincoln signed The National Currency Act into law. The Act established the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, charged with responsibility for organizing and administering a system of nationally chartered banks and a uniform national currency. -
Idaho Territory is organized by the U.S. Congress. -
Confederates win a stunning victory at the Battle of Chancellorsville; Stonewall Jackson is fatally wounded -
The Battle of Chancellorsville was a major battle of the American Civil War, and the principal engagement of the Chancellorsville campaign. Confederate victory -
The Siege of Vicksburg was a decisive Union victory during the American Civil War that divided the confederacy and cemented the reputation of Union General Ulysses S. Grant -
The siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana, was the final engagement in the Union campaign to recapture the Mississippi River in the American Civil War. -
American Civil War: Battle of Gettysburg: Union forces under George G. Meade turn back a Confederate invasion by Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg, the largest battle of the war (28,000 Confederate casualties, 23,000 Union). Union Victory -
The Battle of Brandy Station, also called the Battle of Fleetwood Hill, was the largest predominantly cavalry engagement of the American Civil War, as well as the largest ever to take place on American soil. -
War's most notorious prison camp opens near Andersonville, Georgia -
Congress passes the punitive Wade-Davis Bill; Lincoln will pocket veto. -
Jubal Early and 12,000 Confederate troops threaten Washington. -
U.S. General Phil Sheridan begins Shenandoah Valley Campaign. -
Sherman captures Atlanta, Georgia. -
The territory of Nevada became an official U.S. State -
Lincoln defeats McClellan in the 1864 presidential election. -
The Sand Creek massacre was a massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho people by the U.S. Army in the American Indian Wars that occurred on November 29, 1864 -
Confederates' main western army shattered at the Battle of Nashville, Tennessee. -
Ending his March to the Sea, Sherman takes Savannah, Georgia -
U.S. House passes the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery (ratified December 1865) -
Sherman's army moves through Columbia, South Carolina. -
U.S. Congress establishes the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands -
Davis signs a "Negro Soldier Law," authorizing the enlistment of slaves. -
Petersburg, Virginia, falls to the Union; Richmond evacuated and set ablaze. -
Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. -
John Wilkes Booth assassinates Lincoln; Andrew Johnson becomes president -
Sherman accepts the surrender of C.S.A's General Joe Johnston in North Carolina. -
President Johnson proclaims armed resistance at an end; Davis is captured -
In Galveston, U. S. Maj. Gen. Granger issued General Orders No. 3, confirming those enslaved in Texas had been freed under the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. Local celebrations later inspired “Juneteenth,” commemorating the end of slavery. -
The Civil Rights Act of 1866 was the first United States federal law to define citizenship and affirm that all citizens are equally protected by the law. -
These riots occured when a police officer tried to arrest a black ex-soldier. This sparked outrage. -
Ex parte Milligan, was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court that ruled that the use of military tribunals to try civilians when civil courts are operating is unconstitutional. -
U.S. Congress passes Fourteenth Amendment, affirming citizenship for African Americans -
The Judicial Circuits Act reduces the number of United States circuit courts to nine and the number of Supreme Court justices to seven. -
Tennessee readmitted to the Union -
The U.S. Congress passes legislation authorizing the rank of General of the Army Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant becomes the first to have this rank. -
The National Union Convention is held in Philadelphia with hopes to reconcile the Radical Republicans in Congress with the Reconstructionist policies of President Andrew Johnson. -
President Johnson formally declares Civil War over. -
House of Representatives elections: Despite President Andrew Johnson's Swing Around the Circle tour, the Republican Party wins in a landslide. -
The John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge opens between Cincinnati, Ohio and Covington, Kentucky, becoming the longest suspension bridge in the world. -
African American men in the United States are granted the ability to vote in Washington D.C. -
Alaska is purchased for $7.2 million from Alexander II of Russia, about 2 cent/acre ($4.19/km²), by United States Secretary of State William H. Seward. -
A Sioux and Cheyenne war party kills U.S. Second Lieutenant Lyman Kidder, along with an Indian scout and ten enlisted men in Kansas. -
The first elevated railroad in USA begins service in New York. -
The territories of thw Wyoming region were organized into an official state. -
The United States takes control of Midway Island -
U.S. takes formal possession of Alaska from Russia, paying $7.2 million. -
Near Medicine Lodge Creek, Kansas, a landmark treaty is signed by southern Great Plains Indian leaders. The treaty requires Native American Plains tribes to relocate to a reservation in western Oklahoma. -
In a New York City theater, British author Charles Dickens gives his first public reading in the United States. -
49 people are killed in a train crash in Angola, New York. -
Impeachment of Andrew Johnson: Three days after his action to dismiss Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, the House of Representatives votes 126 to 47 in favor of a resolution to impeach Andrew Johnson, the first of three Presidents to be impeached by the full House. Johnson is later acquitted by the Senate. -
Nebraska is admitted as the 37th U.S. state -
After pursuing a policy of total war on the Plain Indians, General William Tecumseh Sherman brokers the Treaty of Fort Laramie. -
Memorial Day is observed in the United States for the first time. It was proclaimed on May 5 by General John A. Logan. -
Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, North Carolina, and South Carolina are all readmitted to the U.S. -
The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution is adopted, guaranteeing African Americans full citizenship and all persons in the United States due process of law. -
Rebels (some 400–600) in the town of Lares declare Puerto Rico independent; the local militia easily defeats them a week later. -
U.S. presidential election, 1868: Ulysses S. Grant defeats Horatio Seymour in the election. -
In the early morning, United States Army Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer leads an attack on a band of Cheyenne living on reservation land with Chief Black Kettle, killing 103 Cheyenne. -
President Andrew Johnson grants unconditional pardon to all Civil War rebels.