-
-
Abraham Lincoln gives his Cooper Union speech against the spread of slavery. -
The Democratic Party convention begins in Charleston, South Carolina. Southern radicals, or "fire-eaters", oppose front-runner Stephen A. Douglas' bid for the party's Presidential nomination. The Democrats begin splitting North and South as many Southern delegates walkout. -
Former Whigs from the border states form the Constitutional Union Party and nominate former U.S. Senator John C. Bell of Tennessee for President and Edward Everett of Massachusetts for Vice President on a one-issue platform of national unity. -
Southern Democrats nominated Vice President John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky for President. Their platform endorses a national slave code. -
Abraham Lincoln wins the 1860 presidential election on a platform that includes the prohibition of slavery in new states and territories. -
The South Carolina legislature calls for an election on December 6 for delegates to a convention on December 17 to consider whether the State should secede from the Union. -
Lincoln says that his administration will permit states to control their own internal affairs. -
South Carolina delegates meet with Buchanan and believe he agrees not to change the military situation at Charleston. -
They demand the removal of federal troops from Charleston. Buchanan states he needs more time to consider the situation. -
The South Carolina convention votes for the election of commissioners to other Southern states which called conventions to meet to form a provisional government. -
Mississippi secedes from the Union. -
Alabama secedes from the union -
Georgia secedes from the union -
Louisiana secedes from the union -
Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as the 16th President of the United States. -
President Lincoln ordered relief expeditions for Fort Sumter and Fort Pickens to be prepared to depart for the forts by April 6. -
Confederates demand the surrender of Fort Sumter. -
Virginia Convention votes for secession and provides for a referendum -
The Arkansas legislature voted to secede. -
Tennessee voted for secession by 69% yes, 31% no; a majority in eastern Tennessee voted for Union. -
The Union victory weakened the Confederate hold on the state. -
The loss of this southern fort on the Tennessee River opened the door to Union control of the river. -
This primary southern fort on the Cumberland River left the river in Union hands. It was here that Union General Ulysses S. Grant gained his nickname "Unconditional Surrender". -
The Union victory loosened the Confederate hold on Missouri and disrupted southern control of a portion of the Mississippi River. -
the first major battle in Tennessee. Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston, a veteran of the Texas War of Independence and the War with Mexico considered to be one of the finest officers the South has, is killed on the first day of fighting. The Union victory further secures the career of Union General Ulysses S. Grant. -
General Joseph Johnston, commander of the Confederate army in Virginia is wounded and replaced by Robert E. Lee who renames his command the "Army of Northern Virginia". -
General Lee's army attacks the "Army of the Potomac" under General George McClellan in a succession of battles beginning at Mechanicsville on June 26 and ending at Malvern Hill on July 1. -
Fought on the same ground where one year before, the Union army was defeated and sent reeling in retreat to Washington. Likewise, the result of this battle is a Union defeat. -
The bloodiest single day of the Civil War. The result of the battle ends General Lee's first invasion of the North. Following the Union victory, President Lincoln will introduce the Emancipation Proclamation, an executive order that freed every slave in the Confederate States. -
The Army of the Potomac, under General Ambrose Burnside, is soundly defeated by Lee's forces after a risky river crossing and sacking of the city. -
Applauded by many abolitionists including Frederick Douglass, there are others who feel it does not go far enough to totally abolish slavery. -
It had begun in the South the year before. -
General Lee's greatest victory is marred by the mortal wounding of "Stonewall" Jackson, who dies on May 10. Soon after, Lee asks Jefferson Davis for permission to invade the North and take the war out of Virginia. -
Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant attack Confederate defenses outside the city on May 19-22. If Vicksburg falls, the Mississippi River will be completely controlled by the Union. -
Confederate troops under General Richard Ewell defeat Union troops under General Robert Milroy, clearing the Shenandoah Valley of Union forces. -
Confederates pass through York and reach the bridge over the Susquehanna River at Columbia, but Union militia set fire to the bridge, denying access to the east shore. Southern cavalry skirmishes with Union militia near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. -
The bloodiest battle of the Civil War dashes Robert E. Lee's hopes for a successful invasion of the North. -
Leading the Union infantry charge is the 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry commanded by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw who is killed and buried with the dead of his regiment. -
The Union Army of the Cumberland under General William Rosecrans is defeated and nearly routed by the Confederate Army of Tennessee commanded by General Braxton Bragg. Rosecrans' army retreats to the supply base at Chattanooga, Tennessee. -
Union forces break the Confederate siege of the city in successive attacks. The most notable event is the storming of Lookout Mountain on November 24 and Battle of Missionary Ridge the following day. -
Universally referred to as Andersonville Prison Camp, it will become notorious for overcrowded conditions and a high death rate among its inmates. -
The CSS H.L. Hunley, a seven-man submergible craft, attacked the USS Housatonic outside of Charleston, South Carolina. Struck by the submarine's torpedo, the Housatonic broke apart and sank, taking all but five of her crew with her. -
A rank revived at the request of President Lincoln. Grant assumes command of all Union Armies in the field the following day. -
General Ulysses S. Grant, accompanying the Army of the Potomac under General Meade, issued orders for the campaign to begin on May 3. -
Lee successfully stalls Grant's drive toward Richmond. -
Abraham Lincoln is nominated by his party for a second term as president -
In spite of being outnumbered almost two to one, Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest attacks and routs the Union command under General Samuel Sturgis -
After withdrawing from the lines at Cold Harbor, the Army of the Potomac crossed the James River and with troops from the Army of the James attacked the outer defenses of Petersburg, the primary junction for several southern railroads. -
In an early morning surprise attack, Jubal Early's Confederates successfully attack and drive troops of the Army of the Shenandoah from their camps on the banks of Cedar Creek south of Middletown, Virginia. -
Abraham Lincoln is reelected president of the United States. -
South Carolina while Confederate defenders evacuate Charleston, South Carolina. -
closing the last important southern port on the east coast. On this same day, Joseph E. Johnston is restored to command the nearly shattered Army of Tennessee, vice John B. Hood resigned a month earlier. -
President Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated for his second term as president in Washington, DC. -
Touted as "Lee's last offensive", Confederate troops under General John B. Gordon attack and briefly capture the Union fort in the Petersburg siege lines in an attempt to thwart Union plans for a late March assault -
The Confederate defeat at Five Forks initiates General Lee's decision to abandon the Petersburg-Richmond siege lines. -
General Lee abandons both cities and moves his army west in hopes of joining Confederate forces under General Johnston in North Carolina. -
Lee seeks an audience with General Grant to discuss terms. That afternoon in the parlor of Wilmer McLean, Lee signs the document of surrender. On April 12, the Army of Northern Virginia formally surrenders and is disbanded. -
Confederate forces in the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana. -
Confederate President Jefferson Davis is captured near Irwinville, Georgia. -
General Simon Bolivar Buckner enters into terms for the surrender of the Army of the Trans-Mississippi, which are agreed to on June 2, 1865. The Civil War officially ends. -
The second United States Capitol dome is completed in Washington, D.C. after 11 years of work. -
the first federal legislation to protect the rights of African-Americans; U.S. President Andrew Johnson vetoes the bill on March 27, and Congress overrides the veto on April 9 -
Memphis riots of 1866 -
reduces the number of United States circuit courts to nine and the number of Supreme Court justices to seven. -
Reconstruction: Tennessee becomes the first U.S. state to be readmitted to the Union following the American Civil War. -
Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant becomes the first to have this rank. -
President Johnson formally declares Civil War over. -
speaking tour to gain support for his Reconstructionist policies and Democratic Party candidates in the upcoming elections. -
Despite President Andrew Johnson's Swing Around the Circle tour, the Republican Party wins in a landslide. -
The College of Wooster is founded in Ohio -
African-American men are granted the right to vote in the District of Columbia. -
West Virginia University is established in Morgantown, West Virginia. -
National Cigar company hires black and woman workers -
Alaska is purchased for $7.2 million from Alexander II of Russia, about 2 cent/acre ($4.19/km²), by United States Secretary of State William H. Seward. -
The first elevated railroad in the USA began service in New York. -
2000 Chinese workers protest work -
The United States takes control of Midway Island. -
Medicine Lodge Treaty: Near Medicine Lodge Creek, Kansas, a landmark treaty is signed by southern Great Plains Indian leaders. -
Former Minnesota farmer Oliver Hudson Kelley founds the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry -
In a New York City theater, British author Charles Dickens gives his first public reading in the United States.