Civil War Timeline

  • Stephen F Austin goes to jail

    Stephen was a revolutionary. Mexican authorities were concerned about the amount of former americans moving to Mexico. President Santa Ana refused to grant Texas seperate status from Coahilua and threw Austin in prison on suspicion of inciting insurrection.
  • Missouri Compromise 1820-1821

    a United States federal satutue devised by henry clay. it regulated slavery in the countrys western territories by prohibiting the practice in the former Louisiana territory north of the parrellel 36 30 north except within the the bounderies of the proposed state of missouri.
  • Santa Fe Trail

    19th century transportation route through cental north america that connected franklin, missouri with Santa Fe. Pioneered in 1821 by Willian Becknell and served as a vital commercial high way.
  • San Felipe De Austin

    a town in Austin County. the town was the political center of the early Stephen F Austin colony.
  • Mexico Abolishes slavery

    the govenors feared the growth in the anglo american population in texas, and for various reasons, by the early 19th century, they and their superiors in mexico decided not to expand slavery. in 1829 the guererro decree conditonally abolished slavery throughout mexican territories.
  • The Liberator

    anti slavery news paper
  • Nat Turners Rebelion

    aka the southhampton insurrection, was a slave rebellion that took place in south hamptom county Virginia, led by nat turner rebel slaves killed anywhere from 55 to 65 people the highest number of fatalities caused by any slave revolution
  • Texas Revolution

    the texas revolution began when colonists in the mexican provinence of texas rebelled against the increasingly centallist mexican government.
  • Oregon Trail

    2,200 mile historic east-west, large wheeled wagon route and emigrant trail that connected the missouri river to valleys in oregon
  • Texas Enters the United States

    After gaining independence from Spain in the 1820s, Mexico welcomed foreign settlers to sparsely populated Texas, and a large group of Americans led by Stephen F. Austin settled along the Brazos River. The Americans soon outnumbered the resident Mexicans, and by the 1830s attempts by the Mexican government to regulate these semi-autonomous American communities led to rebellion. In March 1836, in the midst of armed conflict with the Mexican government, Texas declared its independence from Mexico.
  • Mexican American War

    This war was initiated by mexico and resulted in mexicos defeat and the loss of approximately half of if territory in the north
  • The North Star

    North Star was a nineteenth-century anti-slavery newspaper published in the United States by abolitionist Frederick Douglass.
  • Treaty of Guadalupe HIldago

    The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (Tratado de Guadalupe Hidalgo in Spanish), officially entitled the Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Limits and Settlement between the United States of America and the Mexican Republic, is the peace treaty signed on February 2, 1848, in the Villa de Guadalupe Hidalgo
  • Compromise of 1850

    The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850, which defused a four-year political confrontation between slave and free states regarding the status of territories acquired during the Mexican–American War (1846–48).
  • Underground Railroad

    The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century enslaved people of African descent in the United States in efforts to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause.
  • Fugitive Slave act

    The Fugitive Slave Law or Fugitive Slave Act was passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave-holding interests and Northern Free-Soilers.
  • Uncle Toms Cabin

    Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly, is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War", according to Will Kaufman.
  • Kansas Nebraska Act

    The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 (10 Stat. 277) created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska by Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. The initial purpose of the Kansas–Nebraska Act was to open up many thousands of new farms and make feasible a Midwestern Transcontinental Railroad.
  • Dread Scott v. Sandford

    In this ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court stated that slaves were not citizens of the United States and, therefore, could not expect any protection from the Federal Government or the courts. The opinion also stated that Congress had no authority to ban slavery from a Federal territory.
  • Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas Debates

    In 1858, as the country moved ever closer to disunion, two politicians from Illinois attracted the attention of a nation. From August 21 until October 15, Stephen Douglas battled Abraham Lincoln in face to face DEBATES around the state. The prize they sought was a seat in the Senate. Lincoln challenged Douglas to a war of ideas. Douglas took the challenge. The debates were to be held at 7 locations throughout Illinois. The fight was on and the nation was watching.
  • John Brown raid/ harpers ferry

    John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry (also known as John Brown's raid or The raid on Harper's Ferry; in many books the town is called "Harper's Ferry") was an effort by white abolitionist John Brown to initiate an armed slave revolt in 1859 by taking over a United States arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. Brown's raid, accompanied by 20 men in his party, was defeated by a platoon of U.S. Marines led by Colonel Robert E. Lee. John Brown had originally asked Harriet Tubman and Frederick Dou
  • Abraham Lincoln becomes president

    On November 6, 1860, Lincoln was elected the 16th president of the United States, beating Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, John C. Breckinridge of the Southern Democrats, and John Bell of the new Constitutional Union Party. He was the first president from the Republican Party.
  • Formation of the Confederacy

    States began seceding after the Election of Abraham Lincoln, even before he was inaugurated. South Carolina (December 20, 1860), Mississippi (January 9, 1861), Florida (January 10, 1861), Alabama (January 11, 1861), Georgia (January 19, 1861), Louisiana (January 26, 1861), and Texas (February 1, 1861). On February 4, 1861, the states farthest south, where slavery and plantations agriculture were dominant, formed the Confederate States of America with Jefferson Davis as President. They establishe
  • Attack on Fort Sumter

    The Battle of Fort Sumter was the bombardment and surrender of Fort Sumter, near Charleston, South Carolina, that started the American Civil War
  • Battle of Bull run

    The First Battle of Bull Run, also known as First Manassas, was fought on July 21, 1861 in Prince William County, Virginia, near the city of Manassas, not far from Washington, D.C. It was the first major battle of the American Civil War
  • Battle of Antietem

    The Battle of Antietam /ænˈtiːtəm/, also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg, particularly in the South, fought on September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland, and Antietam Creek as part of the Maryland
  • Emancipation Proclamation

    President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."
  • Battle at Vicksburg

    The Siege of Vicksburg was the final major military action in the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War.
  • Battle of gettysburg

    The Battle of Gettysburg was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War
  • Gettysburg Adress

    The Gettysburg Address is a speech by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, one of the best-known in American history
  • Sherman's march

    sherman's March to the Sea is the name commonly given to the military Savannah Campaign in the American Civil War, conducted through Georgia from November 15 to December 21, 1864 by Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman of the Union Army
  • Thirteenth Amendment

    The Thirteenth Amendment (Amendment XIII) to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. In Congress, it was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, and by the House on January 31, 1865.
  • Surrender at Appottox court house

    The Battle of Appomattox Court House, fought on the morning of April 9, 1865, was one of the last battles of the American Civil War.
  • Assasination of Abraham Lincoln

    n April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor and Confederate sympathizer, fatally shot President Abraham Lincoln at a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. The attack came only five days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his massive army at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the American Civil War.
  • Manifest Destiny

    Manifest Destiny is a term for the attitude prevalent during the 19th century period of American expansion that the United States not only could, but was destined to, stretch from coast to coast. This attitude helped fuel western settlement, Native American removal and war with Mexico.
  • Harriet Tubman

    Harriet Tubman was an African-American abolitionist, humanitarian, and, during the American Civil War, a Union spy.
  • Abolition

    the action or an act of abolishing a system, practice, or institution.
  • Conscription

    compulsory enlistment for state service, typically into the armed forces.
  • Income tax

    tax levied by a government directly on income, especially an annual tax on personal income.