Civil War Timeline

  • 1860 BCE

    Lincoln elected sixteenth President

    Abraham Lincoln is elected the 16th president of the United States over a deeply divided Democratic Party, becoming the first Republican to win the presidency.
  • South Carolina secedes from the Union

    When the ordinance was adopted on December 20, 1860, South Carolina became the first slave state in the south to declare that it had seceded from the United States
  • Mississippi Florida secede

    On January 10 1861 the delegates formally adopted the Ordinance of Secession which declared that the nation of Florida had withdrawn from the American union. Florida was the third state to secede following South Carolina and Mississippi
  • Tennessee secedes

    Tennessee held firm against separation, while West Tennessee returned an equally heavy majority
  • U.S. sanitary created to provide care for wounded soldiers

    Sanitary reform within the military and hospitals improved soldiers' health and increased their chances of survival after being wounded
  • Union and Confederate troops clashed outside Manassas Virginia in the first major engagement of the civil War

    The Confederate victory gave the South a surge of confidence and shocked many in the North, who realized the war would not be won as easily as they had hoped.
  • General George B. McClellan takes command of the Army

    Civil War Breaks Out Like many people at the time, McClellan opposed the outright abolition of slavery, though he was committed to the preservation of the Union
  • Congress levies the first federal income tax

    The first Federal income tax was levied to help pay for the Union war effort. In the summer of 1861, Salmon P. Chase reported to Congress that he would need $320 million over the next fiscal year to finance the war
  • U.S. Navy seizes Confederate diplomats Mason

    They were to liken the Confederate situation to Italy's struggles for independence which Britain had supported and were to quote Russell's own letters which justified that support
  • U.S. Congress forms the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War

    The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War was a joint committee of the U.S. Congress during the American Civil War. Its role was to investigate the progress of the war against the Confederacy. The committee was established on December 9, 1861, and disbanded when the war ended in May 1865.
  • Factions of Creek and other Indian nations loyal

  • Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant victorious at Fort Donelson, Tennessee

    The Battle of Fort Donelson was the first major Union victory in the Civil War
  • McClellan's forces siege Yorktown Virginia Peninsula Campaign begins

    The operation, commanded by Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, was an amphibious turning movement against the Confederate States Army in Northern Virginia, intended to capture the Confederate capital of Richmond.
  • Battle of Shiloh Pittsburg Landing Tennessee

    was a crucial victory for the Union during the Civil War. On April 7, 1862, the Civil War's Battle of Shiloh ended with a United States Union victory over Confederate forces in Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee
  • Slavery ends in the district of Columbia initiates the first military draft

    Many Northerners believed it was wrong that slave could be bought and sold within just a few blocks of the capitol building
  • U.S. Navy Captain David Farragut captures New Orleans

    David Farragut was an accomplished U.S. naval officer, who received great acclaim for his service to the Union during the American Civil War
  • U.S. Congress passes Homestead Act granting up to 160 acres of land to settlers who improve the land for at least five years

    The Homestead Act, enacted during the Civil War in 1862, provided that any adult citizen
  • U.S. Congress passes the Morrill Land Grant College Act one of the key pieces of education legislation in U.S. history

    this act made it possible for new western states to establish colleges for their citizens. The new land-grant institutions, which emphasized agriculture
  • General Robert E. Lee assumes command of the Army of Northern Virginia

    the Confederate Army of the Potomac, the confederate forces were renamed the Army of Northern Virginia when Robert E. Lee assumed command on June 1, 1862, in a battle to defend the city of Richmond from Union forces
  • Slavery outlawed in U.S. territories

    The liberation of slaves would weaken the Confederacy by depriving it of a major portion of its labor force, which would in turn strengthen the Union by producing an influx of manpower.
  • Lincoln signs the Pacific Railroad Act

    The Pacific Railway Act was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on July 1, 1862
  • United States Congress passes the Second Confiscation Act

    The Confederate Congress also passed property confiscation acts to apply to Union adherents. But the amount of land actually confiscated during or after the war by either side was not great.
  • Dakota War begins in Minnesota

    The causes of the US-Dakota War of 1862 were many and it remains one of the most important events in Minnesota history
  • Confederate victory at the Battle of Second Manassas/Bull Run

    Despite heavy Confederate casualties 9,000 the Battle of Second Bull Run known as Second Manassas in the South was a decisive victory for the rebels, as Lee had managed a strategic offensive against an enemy force Pope and McClellan's twice the size of his own
  • Battle of Sharpsburg/Antietam 23,000 casualties

    As night fell, thousands of bodies littered the sprawling Antietam battlefield and both sides regrouped and claimed their dead and wounded
  • Lincoln issues the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation

    President Abraham Lincoln issues a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which sets a date for the freedom of more than 3 million enslaved in the United States and recasts the Civil War as a fight against slavery.
  • The Union suffers a defeats at the Battle of Fredericksburg

    The Union had suffered nearly 13,000 casualties, most of them in front of Marye's Heights
  • Lincoln issues the final Emancipation Proclamation

  • Cherokee Nation abolishes slavery; declares support for the Union

    Cherokee Indians in Washington in 1866 to negotiate the treaty with the United States
  • Lincoln signs the first Federal draft law

    President Lincoln imposes the first federal income tax by signing the Revenue Act.
  • A food riot breaks out in Richmond

    The riots were triggered by the women's lack of money, provisions, and food. All were the result of multiple factors, mostly related to the Civil War Inflation had caused prices to soar while incomes had not kept pace.
  • Confederates win a victory at the Battle of Chancellorsville

    Chancellorsville is known as Lee's "perfect battle" because his risky decision to divide his army in the presence of a much larger enemy force resulted in a significant Confederate victory.
  • Colored Troops is established to organize black regiments.

    This major collection of records rests in the stacks of the National Archive
  • West Virginia admitted to the Union

    During the Civil War, West Virginia is admitted into the Union as the 35th U.S. state, or the 24th state if the secession of the 11 Southern states were taken into account.
  • Vicksburg surrenders to Grant's army

    Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of Tennessee crossed the Mississippi River
  • New York City drafts

    The New York Draft Riots occurred in July 1863, when the anger of working-class New Yorkers over a new federal draft law during the Civil War sparked five days of some of the bloodiest and most destructive rioting in U.S. history.
  • Union assault on Fort Wagner left by the African American regiment

    Although a tactical defeat, the publicity of the battle of Fort Wagner led to further action for black U.S. troops in the Civil War
  • Confederate victory at Chickamauga

    Chickamauga was the largest Confederate victory in the Western theater With 16,170 Union and 18,454 Confederate casualties, the Battle of Chickamauga was the second costliest battle of the Civil War, ranking only behind Gettysburg
  • troops begins when Stanton orders 20,000 men, with equipment, moved 1,233 miles to relieve Chattanooga

    movement of troops begins when Stanton orders 20,000 men, with equipment, moved 1,233 miles to relieve Chattanooga
  • Chicago hosts first sanitary fair to raise funds for the U.S. Sanitary

    The Metropolitan Fair was a public event organized in the Metropolitan City of New York by the United States Sanitary Commission to raise funds and supplies for the Union Army during the American Civil War
  • Lincoln delivers Gettysburg

    Lincoln delivered one of the most famous speeches in United States history at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery on November 19, 1863. The victory of U.S. forces, which turned back a Confederate invasion, marked a turning point in the Civil War
  • Lincoln issues Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction

    the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, Lincoln was seizing the initiative for reconstruction from Congress
  • War's most notorious prison camp opens near Andersonville

    From there Early was to move towards Washington, DC, approaching the national capital from the northwest
  • Grant is promoted to lieutenant general appointed general-in-chief of U.S. armies

    President Abraham Lincoln and Congress, frustrated by the failures of their military leaders, needed to find a commander who could lead the Union to victory
  • Confederates capture Fort Pillow, Tennessee

    During the Fort Pillow Massacre, on April 12, 1864, Confederate troops killed nearly 200 Black troops fighting for the Union
  • Grant launches Overland Campaign U.S. General William T. Sherman marches toward Atlanta

    Grant's Overland Campaign called for a three-pronged attack in Virginia to keep Lee's forces engaged as General William T. Sherman's forces swept across the South toward Atlanta
  • Overland Campaign ends, ten-month siege of Petersburg, Virginia begins

    During the Fort Pillow Massacre, on April 12 1864 Confederate troops killed nearly 200 Black troops fighting for the Union.
  • Congress passes the punitive Wade-Davis Bill Lincoln will pocket veto

    President Lincoln, who had earlier proposed a more modest 10-percent threshold, pocket-vetoed the Wade-Davis bill, stating he was opposed to being inflexibly committed to any single plan of restoration
  • Jubal Early and 12,000 Confederate troops threaten Washington

    From there Early was to move towards Washington, DC, approaching the national capital from the northwest
  • U.S. General Phil Sheridan begins Shenandoah Valley Campaign

    His main target was the 15,000 Confederate cavalry troops under General Jubal Early. The Confederacy relied on the fertile valley for much of its food
  • Sherman captures Atlanta, Georgia

    its location and commercial importance, Atlanta was used as a center for military operations and as a supply route by the Confederate army during the Civil War.
  • Lincoln defeats McClellan in the 1864 presidential election

    The 1864 Democratic National Convention nominated McClellan, a War Democrat, but adopted a platform advocating peace
  • Confederates' main western army at the Battle of Nashville, Tennessee

    The decisive Union victory shattered Hood's army and effectively ended Southern resistance in Tennessee for the remainder of the war.
  • Ending his March to the Sea, Sherman takes Savannah, Georgia

    The purpose of Sherman's March to the Sea was to frighten Georgia's civilian population into abandoning the Confederate cause. Sherman's soldiers did not destroy any of the towns in their path, but they stole food
  • U.S. House passes the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery

    the U.S. House of Representatives passes the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery in America
  • Sherman's army moves through Columbia, South Carolina

    the soldiers from Union General William Tecumseh Sherman's army ransack Columbia, South Carolina
  • U.S. Congress establishes the Bureau of Refugees

    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.
  • Davis signs a Negro Soldier Law

    Negro soldiers came during the closing months of the war
  • Petersburg Virginia falls to the Union Richmond evacuated

    Richmond, Virginia served as the capital of the Confederate States of America for almost the whole of the American Civil War.
  • Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia

    In Appomattox Court House, Virginia, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders his 28,000 troops to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, effectively ending the American Civil War
  • John Wilkes Booth assassinates Lincoln

    A supporter of slavery, Booth believed that Lincoln was determined to overthrow the Constitution and to destroy his beloved South.
  • Sherman accepts the surrender of General Joe Johnston in North Carolina

    Union General William T. Sherman was relentlessly pursuing Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston through North Carolina.
  • President Johnson proclaims armed resistance at an end

    At the same time, Johnson reaffirmed U.S. readiness to seek a negotiated end
  • U.S. Congress passes Fourteenth Amendment affirming citizenship for African Americans

    The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1868, granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States including former slaves and guaranteed all citizens “equal protection of the laws
  • Texas had been freed under the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation

    The Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, though the word of the edict would not officially reach Texas for another and why freedom for Texas slaves
  • U.S. Congress passes Fourteenth Amendment affirming citizenship for African Americans

    The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1868, granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States including former slaves and guaranteed all citizens equal protection of the laws. One of three amendments passed during the Reconstruction era to abolish slavery and establish
  • Tennessee readmitted to the Union

    Because it ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, Tennessee was the only state that seceded from the Union that did not have a military governor during Reconstruction
  • Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina readmitted to the Union

    The declaration stated the primary reasoning behind South Carolina's declaring of secession from the U.S., which was described as "increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the Institution of Slavery
  • Ulysses S. Grant inaugurated as president

    Grant as the 18th President of the United States took place on March 4, 1869, at the East Portico of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. This was the 21st inauguration
  • Transcontinental Railroad completed

    The transcontinental railroad had a major effect on how Americans perceived their nation, and it became a symbol of America's growing industrial power and a source of confidence that led them to take on even more ambitious quests
  • Virginia readmitted to the Union

    Southern states were required to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment before being readmitted to the union. The Fifteenth Amendment guaranteed African American men the right to vote
  • Fifteenth Amendment ratified; granting all male citizens the right to vote

    The 15th Amendment granting African-American men the right to vote was adopted into the U.S. Constitution in 1870
  • Mississippi readmitted to the Union

    Congress readmitted Mississippi to the Union, nine years after the state had seceded to join the Confederacy
  • Texas readmitted to the Union

    Narrative History of Texas Secession and Readmission to the Union Related Secession Documents Ordinance of Secession
  • Georgia readmitted to the Union

    On this day in 1870, Georgia became the last former Confederate state to be readmitted into the Union.