civil war timeline

  • US declares independence

    US declares independence

    US becomes a country
  • Louisiana Purchase

    Louisiana Purchase

    doubles the size of the United States
  • Underground railroad

    Underground railroad

    slaves by the thousands escape to the north
  • Missouri Compromise between North and South

    Missouri Compromise between North and South

    The compromise limits slavery to the South
  • Trail of Tears

    Trail of Tears

    Andrew Jackson ignores the Supreme Court and forces Indians to give up their lands and march 2,000 miles west. The Cherokee lands were given to American farmers to grow cotton, which required more slave labor.
  • War with Mexico

    War with Mexico

    The US takes all western states from Mexico. The fight begins over slavery in the new states gained from Mexico.
  • Harriet Tubman escapes

    Harriet Tubman escapes

    Tubman becomes a conductor helping others escape and a voice for the enslaved
  • Fugitive slave law

    Fugitive slave law

    The South forces a law which allows slaves to be pursued anywhere they escape to.
  • Dred Scott loses case

    Dred Scott loses case

    Supreme Court rules that slavery is permanent, cannot be banned, and African descent have no inherent rights
  • Lincoln vs Douglas debates

    Lincoln vs Douglas debates

    Lincoln becomes a senator after debates with pro-slavery opponent
  • Lincoln Elected President

    Lincoln Elected President

  • South Carolina secedes

    South Carolina secedes

    The state is the first to leave the United States over slavery after Lincoln elected
  • Eleven Southern states secede

    Eleven Southern states secede

    All Southern states declare they have left the United States and are now a separate country called the Confederacy.
  • The Picnic Battle of Bull Run

    The Picnic Battle of Bull Run

    Lincoln declares a 90-day war to keep the country together, but the North loses the first battle while politicians watch and picnic
  • Emancipation Proclamation

    Emancipation Proclamation

    Lincoln states that all enslaved persons are now free
  • Robert E Lee surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant

    Robert E Lee surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant

    the Civil War ends
  • Last slaves freed in Texas

    Last slaves freed in Texas

    US army arrives in Texas and tells slaves they are free Texas kept slavery even after it was illegal. Juneteenth celebrates the day the last persons were freed.
  • Sherman’s march to the sea

    Sherman’s march to the sea

    General Sherman invents “total war” as he destroys everything in his path