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Events that led to the Civil War
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The Pony Express began -
Lincoln gets elected for president -
The Crittenden Compromise was an unsuccessful proposal to permanently enshrine slavery in the United States Constitution, and thereby make it unconstitutional for future congresses to end slavery -
In 1860, South Carolina officially breaks away from the United States -
Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana secede -
Kansas admitted to the Union as a free state -
(the Confederacy) established under President Jefferson Davis -
The Morrill Tariff was an increased import tariff in the United States -
Lincoln serves as the 16th president of the U.S. -
American Civil War begins at Fort Sumter by the Confederates -
Lincoln calls for troops; Virginia secedes -
Ex Parte Merryman, federal court case which objected to Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus -
Arkansas secedes -
Richmond becomes C.S.A. capital; North Carolina secedes -
Tennessee secedes -
U.S. Sanitary Commission created to provide care for wounded soldiers and their families -
First Battle of Bull Run and results in Confederate victory -
Confederates rout Union troops at the first Battle of Manassas/Bull Run; Thomas Jackson earns the nickname "Stonewall" -
Major General George B. McClellan takes command of the Army of the Potomac -
Convinced that McClellan could never defeat Lee, Lincoln notified the general on November 5 of his removal. A few days later, Lincoln named General Ambrose Burnside to be the commander of the Army of the Potomac -
Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant victorious at Fort Donelson, Tennessee -
The battle is named after a small church in the vicinity named Shiloh which ironically translates to "place of peace" or "heavenly peace". The Union won. -
U.S. Navy Captain David Farragut captures New Orleans -
The Homestead Acts were several laws in the United States by which an applicant could acquire ownership of government land or the public domain, typically called a homestead -
The Pacific Railroad Acts of 1862 were a series of acts of Congress that promoted the construction of a "transcontinental railroad" in the United States through authorizing the issuance of government bonds and the grants of land to railroad companies. In 1853, the War Department under then Secretary of War Jefferson Davis was authorized by the Congress to conduct surveys of five different potential transcontinental routes from the Mississippi ranging from north to south -
Confederate victory again -
The first field army–level engagement in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War to take place on Union soil. It remains the bloodiest day in American history. Resulted in a Union victory -
The Union suffers one of its worst defeats at the Battle of Fredericksburg -
The Proclamation changed the legal status of more than 3.5 million enslaved African Americans in the secessionist Confederate states from enslaved to free. As soon as a slave escaped the control of his or her owner, either by running away across Union lines or through the advance of federal troops, the person was permanently free -
Two United States federal banking acts that established a system of national banks, and created the United States National Banking System. They encouraged development of a national currency backed by bank holdings of U.S. Treasury securities and established the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency as part of the United States Department of the Treasury and a system of nationally chartered banks. The Act shaped today's national banking system and its support of a uniform U.S. banking policy -
Cherokee Nation abolishes slavery; declares support for the Union -
Confederates win a stunning victory at the Battle of Chancellorsville; Stonewall Jackson is fatally wounded -
Pro-Union counties become sovereign state of West Virginia -
Considered to be the biggest turning point for the Union. The Confederacy planned a sneak attack on Union soil and lost. -
Vicksburg surrenders to Grant's army -
Lincoln delivers Gettysburg Address. This was used to commemorate a new national cemetery at Gettysburg during the American Civil War. The Gettysburg Address's significance is that it sought to give meaning to the sacrifice of soldiers who died during the war -
War's most notorious prison camp opens near Andersonville, Georgia -
Grant launches Overland Campaign; U.S. General William T. Sherman marches toward Atlanta -
Was a bill "to guarantee to certain States whose governments have been usurped or overthrown a republican form of government," proposed for the Reconstruction of the South. In opposition to President Abraham Lincoln's more lenient ten percent plan, the bill made re-admittance to the Union for former Confederate states contingent on a majority in each ex-Confederate state to take the Ironclad Oath to the effect they had never in the past supported the Confederacy -
Sherman captures Atlanta, Georgia -
Lincoln defeats McClellan in the 1864 presidential election -
Davis appoints Lee general-in-chief; U.S. House passes the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery -
Davis signs a "Negro Soldier Law," authorizing the enlistment of slaves -
Robert E. Lee surrendered the last major Confederate army to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse -
John Wilkes Booth assassinates Lincoln; Andrew Johnson becomes president -
U.S. Congress passes Fourteenth Amendment, affirming citizenship for African Americans -
Tennessee readmitted to the Union -
The Ku Klux Klan reorganizes into a paramilitary organization led by a former Confederate General, Nathan Bedford Forrest -
Legislation enacted that outlined the conditions under which the Southern states would be readmitted to the Union following the American Civil War. The bills were largely written by the Radical Republicans in the U.S. Congress -
African American men granted the right to vote in Washington, D.C. despite President Andrew Johnson's veto -
African-American men are granted the right to vote in the District of Columbia. -
The United States purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million. Secretary State William Seward who negotiated the purchase was widely mocked for the arrangement and the new territory was quickly dubbed “Seward’s Folly,” “Seward’s Ice-box,” and other unflattering names