civil war timeline

  • Compromise of 1850

    (no exact day of month) Attempt at compromise betweeen north and south states after disputes over land after mexican-american war.
  • Bleeding kansas

    (no exact date, began around 1854) Attacks on opposing sides between abolitionists and southerners.
  • Kansas Nebraska Act

    Opened kansas and nebrasksa for settling, repealing missouri compromise. Determines that free or slave status of states would be determined by popular sovereignety.
  • Dredd Scott Decision

    Decision by supreme court that blacks are not American citizens and therefore could not sue in court.
  • Lincoln-Douglas debates

    Debates between electoral parties over which controlled illinois legislature. Slavery was main topic.
  • Harpers Ferry

    "Stonewall" Jackson's confederate troops take town of Harpers Ferry Maryland, (major supply garrison foe union) by the surrender of Dixon Miles union troops
  • Lincolns Election

    Abraham Lincoln is elected the 16th president of the U.S.
  • Fort Sumter

    First battle of the Civil War. Confederate army bombarded Major Robert Anderson's union troops at Charleston South Carolina
  • Antietam

    Union victory at battle of Antietam causes Lincoln's emancipation proclomation
  • Emancipation Proclomation

    Speech given by president Lincoln, stating that freeing slaves would be a goal of the civil war along with unifying the union.
  • Battle at Gettysburg

    Victory by Union troops which stopped General Lee's second invasion of the north. Bloodiest battle of the Civil War. 50,000 casualties.
  • Gettysburg Adress

    Hugely influential speech given by Lincoln, revisiting the topics of human equality stated in the declaration of independence and declaring the Civil War a "struggle for the preservation of the union"
  • Andersonville Prison

    prison for holding captive Union soldiers which had horrible living conditions
  • Surreneder at Appomatox Courthouse

    One of the last battles of the Civil War, Lees troops surrender to union forces after trying to retreat.
  • Assassination of president Lincoln

    Abraham Linclon is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford theatre in Washington D.C.
  • Reconstruction

    Rebuilding the south after a lot of destruction during civil war