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President Abraham Lincoln is elected
Lincoln led the United States through its Civil War. Its bloodiest war and its greatest moral, constitutional and political crisis.In so doing he preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the economy. -
South Carolina secedes from the Union
South Carolina was a site of major political and military importance for the Confederacy during the American Civil War. The white population of the state strongly supported the institution of slavery long before the war. Political leaders such as John C. Calhoun and Preston Brooks had inflamed regional (and national) passions, and for years before the eventual start of the Civil War in 1861, voices cried for secession -
Firing 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. The Major Confederate General was P. G. T. Beauregard annd the Major Union General was Robert Anderson. There were no casualties. -
North Carolina secedes from Union
On May 1, 1861, the North Carolina legislature voted that counties should elect delegates who would determine whether North Carolina would remain in the Union. On May 20, 150 years ago this week, the delegates, convening in Raleigh, voted unanimously that the state would no longer be a part of the United States of America. -
The Battle of Mananas
The First Battle of Bull Run, also known as First Manassas (the name used by Confederate forces), was fought in Prince William County, Virginia, near the city of Manassas, not far from Washington, D.C. The Union Generals were Irvin McDowell and Robert Patterson. The Confederate Generals were P. G. T. Beauregard and Joseph E. Johnston. There were 2,896 casualties. -
President Jefferson Davis is elected
On November 6, 1861, Jefferson Davis was elected president, not of the United States of America but of the Confederate States of America. He ran unopposed and was elected to serve for a six-year term. Davis had already been serving as the temporary president for almost a year. -
The Battle of Shiloh
The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, was a major battle in the Western Theater of the American Civil War, fought April 6–7, 1862, in southwestern Tennessee. A Union army under Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had moved via the Tennessee River deep into Tennessee and was encamped principally at Pittsburg Landing on the west bank of the river. Confederate forces under Generals Albert Sidney Johnston and P. G. T. Beauregard. There were 2,896 casualties. -
The Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation was a presidential proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, as a war measure during the American Civil War, directed to all of the areas in rebellion and all segments of the Executive branch (including the Army and Navy) of the United States. -
The Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg was fought July 1-3, 1863 in & around the town of Gettysburg. The battle involved the largest number of casualties of the entire war (23,055). The Major Union General was George Meade and the Major Confederate General was Robert E. Lee. -
The Battle of the Crater
The Battle of the Crater was a battle of the American Civil War, part of the Siege of Petersburg. It took place on July 30, 1864, between the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, commanded by General Robert E. Lee and the Union Army of the Potomac, commanded by Major General Ambrose Burnside. There were 3.798 casualties. -
Robert E. Lee surrenders at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia
The Battle of Appomattox Court House, fought on the morning of April 9, 1865, was the final engagement of Confederate States Army General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia before it surrendered to the Union Army under Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, and one of the last battles of the American Civil War. -
Jefferson Davis moves the Confederate Capital to Greensboro
In 1865, the Civil War came to Greensboro. For four years, this quiet town was mainly untouched by the horrors of the most destructive war in this country’s history. But in the final days of the war, the city was placed at center stage as the Confederacy fell apart. -
Joseph E. Johnston surrenders at Bennett Place, North Carolina
The surrender of General Joseph E. Johnston's Confederate Army to General William T. Sherman at the Bennett Place, April 26, 1865, was the second and last major stage in the peace making process which ended the War Between the States. General Lee's surrender at Appomattox 17 days earlier was the first. The capitulation of General Richard A. Taylor's small force in Alabama a week later and of Kirby Smith's Trans-Mississippi Army at New Orleans exactly a month later concluded the process.
