Civil War Timeline

Battle of Fort Sumter

Period: Apr 12, 1861 to Apr 14, 1861

First Battle of Bull Run (First Battle of Manassas)

Period: Jul 21, 1861 to Jul 22, 1861

Battle of Hampton Roads (Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack)

Period: Mar 8, 1862 to Mar 9, 1862

Battle of Shiloh

Period: Apr 6, 1862 to Apr 7, 1862

Second Battle of Bull Run (Second Battle of Manassas)

Period: Aug 28, 1862 to Aug 30, 1862

Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg)

Period: Sep 17, 1862 to Sep 18, 1862

Emancipation Proclamation

Period: Jan 1, 1863 to Jan 2, 1863

Issued by Abraham Lincoln, it declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."

Battle of Chancellorsville

Period: Apr 30, 1863 to May 6, 1863

Siege of Vicksburg

Period: May 18, 1863 to Jul 4, 1863

Battle of Gettysburg

Period: Jul 1, 1863 to Jul 3, 1863

Gettysburg Address

Period: Nov 1, 1863 to Nov 2, 1863

Delivered by Lincoln at a ceremony for the dedication of the National Cemetery of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. He discussed the principles of equality in the Declaration of Independence and connected the sacrifices of the Civil War with the preservation of the Union.

The Battle in the Wilderness

Period: Apr 5, 1864 to Apr 7, 1864

Battle of Spotsylvania

Period: May 8, 1864 to May 21, 1864

Appomattox Courthouse

Period: Apr 9, 1865 to Apr 10, 1865

President Abraham Lincoln is Assassinated

Period: Apr 15, 1865 to Apr 16, 1865

On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth, an actor and Confederate sympathizer, fatally shot President Abraham Lincoln at a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. He was pronounced dead at 7:22am the next day.