Civil War Timeline

  • South Carolina votes to secede from the United States

    South Carolina votes to secede from the United States

    The first state to secede from the US.
    When Lincoln won the presidential election, it made the slaveholding south angry.
    They unanimously voted to secede and break away from the government and the other states.
  • Period: to

    CIVIL WAR

  • Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address

    Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address

    Lincoln promised not to interfere with slavery where it already existed.
    Attempted to reconcile with the South.
  • Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address

    Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address

    After four years of a terrible national crisis, Lincoln uses his Second Inaugural to gently, but clearly, call out slavery as the reason for the war.
  • Confederate forces fire on Fort Sumter

    Confederate forces fire on Fort Sumter

    Marked the official beginning of the Civil War.
  • Lincoln suspends habeas corpus

    Lincoln suspends habeas corpus

    Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus between Washington D.C. and Philadelphia to give military authorities the necessary power to silence dissenters and rebels.
  • First Battle of Bull Run is fought

    First Battle of Bull Run is fought

    Marked the first major land battle of the Civil War.
  • Elected President of the Confederacy

    Elected President of the Confederacy

    Jefferson Davis is elected President.
    He was a southern planter and a democratic politician.
  • The Merrimac and the Monitor fight of the Virginia coast

    The Merrimac and the Monitor fight of the Virginia coast

    History's first duel between ironclad warships and the beginning o a new era of naval warfare.
  • Battle of Shiloh

    Battle of Shiloh

    Crucial Victory for the Union during the Civil War.
  • Robert E. Lee is named commander of the Army of Northern Virginia

    Robert E. Lee is named commander of the Army of Northern Virginia

    Confederate forces were on command in a battle to defend the city of Richmond from Union forces.
  • Battle of Antietam

    Battle of Antietam

    This resulted in the Union standing against the Confederate army.
  • Battle of Fredericksburg

    Battle of Fredericksburg

    One of the biggest and deadliest battles of the Civil War.
    Many Union casualties.
    Largest river crossing of the war.
    Gave hopes of victory to the Confederate.
    Union was defeated.
  • Emancipation Proclamation is announced

    Emancipation Proclamation is announced

    Proclamation declared "all persons held as slaves", within the rebellious states, "are, and henceforward shall be free".
  • Battle of Chancellorsville

    Battle of Chancellorsville

    A huge victory for the Confederacy and General Robert E. Lee during the Civil War.
  • Battle of Gettysburg

    Battle of Gettysburg

    July 1 to July 3
    The Union's victory in the Battle of Gettysburg gave the North a major morale boost and some confidence. It also put a definitive end to Confederate General Robert E. Lee's plan to invade the North.
  • Confederates surrender at Vicksburg

    Confederates surrender at Vicksburg

    General JohnC bremerton surrenders to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Vicksburg
  • New York City Draft Riots

    New York City Draft Riots

    This was when the anger of working-class New Yorkers over a new federal draft law during the Civil War.
  • Lincoln gives his Gettysburg Address

    Lincoln gives his Gettysburg Address

    President Lincoln delivered a speech at the close of ceremonies dedication to the battlefield cemetery at Gettysburg, PA.
  • Atlanta is captured

    Atlanta is captured

    During the Civil War, the fall of Atlanta proved to be a blow from which the Confederacy never recovered.
  • Abraham Lincoln defeats George McClellan to win re-election

    Abraham Lincoln defeats George McClellan to win re-election

    Near the end of the War, lincoln defeated the democratic nominee.
    The North had a lot more people than the South so they had control Electorally.
  • Sherman begins his March to the Sea

    Sherman begins his March to the Sea

    Union General William T. Sherman begins his expedition across Georgia by torching the industrial section of Atlanta and pulling away from his supply lines.
  • Congress passes the 13th Amendment

    Congress passes the 13th Amendment

    The 13th amendment abolished slavery in the United States.
  • Freedmen's Bureau is created

    Freedmen's Bureau is created

    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.
  • Richmond falls to the Union Army

    Richmond falls to the Union Army

    This was when Confederate lines near Petersburg broke after a none month of siege.
    The retreat of the army left the Confederate capital of Richmond, 25 miles to the north, defenseless.
  • Richmond becomes the capital of the Confederacy

    Richmond becomes the capital of the Confederacy

    This was once Virginia seceded, the Confederate government moved the capital to Richmond.
  • Lincoln Assassination

    Lincoln Assassination

    At Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C. John Wilkes entered the presidential box and shot Abraham Lincoln.
  • John Wilkes Booth is killed

    John Wilkes Booth is killed

    HA tip led the union soldier back to the Garett farm, where they discovered Booth and Harold in the barn.
    His last words were, "useless, useless".
  • Robert E. Lee surrenders at Appomattox

    Robert E. Lee surrenders at Appomattox

    Virginia, Robert E. surrenders his 28,000 Confederate troops to Union General Ulysses S. Grant.