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South Carolina secedes from the Union.
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Period: to
Civil War Timeline
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The southern states that seceded create a government at Montgomery, Alabama, and the Confederate States of America are formed.
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Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as the sixteenth president of the United States in Washington, DC
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Southern forces fire upon Fort Sumter, South Carolina. The Civil War has formally begun
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Battle of the Bull Run
The Battle of Bull Run (or First Manassas), is fought near Manassas, Virginia. The Union Army under General Irwin McDowell initially succeeds in driving back Confederate forces under General Pierre Gustav Toutant Beauregard, but the arrival of troops under General Joseph E. Johnston initates a series of reverses that sends McDowell's army in a panicked retreat to the defenses of Washington. It is here that Thomas Jonathan Jackson, a professor at VMI, will receive everlasting fame as "Stonewall" -
Lexington, Missouri falls to Confederate forces under Sterling Price.
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The Emancipation Proclamation goes into effect. Applauded by many abolitionists including Frederick Douglass, there are others who feel it does not go far enough to totally abolish slavery.
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Conscription, or the drafting of soldiers into military service, begins in the North. It had begun in the South the year before.
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The Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The bloodiest battle of the Civil War dashes Robert E. Lee's hopes for a successful invasion of the North.
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Chattanooga, Tennessee, is occupied by Union forces under General William Rosecrans whose Army of the Cumberland will soon invade northern Georgia.
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Dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg. President Abraham Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address.
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Lincoln Issues his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, which would pardon those who participated in the "existing rebellion" if they take an oath to the Union.
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Ulysses S. Grant is appointed lieutenant general, a rank revived at the request of President Lincoln. Grant assumes command of all Union Armies in the field the following day
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Battle of Sabine Crossroads or Mansfield, Louisiana, the first major battle of the Red River Campaign in Louisiana.
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Abraham Lincoln is nominated by his party for a second term as president.
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Assault and capture of Fort Fisher, North Carolina. Union occupation of this fort at the mouth of the Cape Fear River closes access to Wilmington, the last southern seaport on the east coast that was open to blockade runners and commercial shipping.
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The final battle of the Civil War takes place at Palmito Ranch, Texas. It is a Confederate victory.
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The Grand Review of the Army of the Potomac in Washington, DC
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The Grand Review of General Sherman's Army in Washington, DC
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General Simon Bolivar Buckner enters into terms for surrender of the Army of the Trans-Mississippi, which are agreed to on June 2, 1865.The Civil War officially ends.