-
South Carolina became the first state to secede from the federal Union on December 20, 1860. The victory of Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 presidential election triggered cries for disunion across the slave holding South.
-
In his inaugural address, Lincoln promised not to interfere with the institution of slavery where it existed, and pledged to suspend the activities of the federal government temporarily in areas of hostility. However, he also took a firm stance against secession and the seizure of federal property.
-
When Confederate troops marched into the fort on the afternoon of April 14, 1861, over 3,300 shells and “hot shot” had been fired at the fort during the initial 34-hour bombardment by 43 Confederate guns. .
-
On April 27, 1861, Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus between Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia to give military authorities the necessary power to silence dissenters and rebels. Under this order, commanders could arrest and detain individuals who were deemed threatening to military operations.
-
Once Virginia seceded, the Confederate government moved the capital to Richmond, the South's second largest city. -
The First Battle of Bull Run, also known as the Battle of Manassas, marked the first major land battle of the American Civil War.
-
On November 6, 1861, Jefferson Davis was elected president of the Confederate States of America. He ran without opposition, and the election simply confirmed the decision that had been made by the Confederate Congress earlier in the year.
-
The Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack is famous because it was the first clash between ironclad warships. This battle changed the future of naval warfare. It took place on March 8, 1862 and March 9, 1862.
-
The Battle of Shiloh was a crucial success for the Union Army, led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Tennessee (named for the river, not the state). It allowed Grant to begin a massive operation in the Mississippi Valley later that year.
-
Originally called the Confederate Army of the Potomac, the confederate forces were renamed the Army of Northern Virginia when Robert E. Lee assumed command on June 1, 1862, in a battle to defend the city of Richmond from Union forces.
-
Union victory at Antietam provided President Abraham Lincoln the opportunity he had wanted to announce the Emancipation Proclamation, making the Battle of Antietam one of the key turning points of the American Civil War.
-
It was a battle with many Union casualties, the largest river crossing of the war, and it also acted as a boost for the Confederate hopes of victory.
-
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."
-
The Battle of Chancellorsville (April 30-May 6, 1863) was a huge victory for the Confederacy and General Robert E. Lee during the Civil War, though it is also famous for being the battle in which Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson was mortally wounded.
-
The Union's eventual victory in the Battle of Gettysburg would give the North a major morale boost and put a definitive end to Confederate General Robert E. Lee's bold plan to invade the North.
-
Surrender at Vicksburg Summary. On July 4, 1863, Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton surrendered the city of Vicksburg and the Confederate garrison defending it to Major General Ulysses S. Grant.
-
On July 13, the government attempted to enforce the draft in New York City and it ignited the most destructive civil disturbance in the city's history. about 300, over half of them policemen and soldiers, were injured, and there were no more than 119 fatalities, most of them rioters.
-
Lincoln delivered one of the most famous speeches in United States history at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery on November 19, 1863. The victory of U.S. forces, which turned back a Confederate invasion, marked a turning point in the Civil War.
-
Union Army General William Tecumseh Sherman lays siege to Atlanta, Georgia, a critical Confederate hub, shelling civilians and cutting off supply lines. -
From November 15 until December 21, 1864, Union General William T. Sherman led some 60,000 soldiers on a 285-mile march from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia. The purpose of Sherman’s March to the Sea was to frighten Georgia’s civilian population into abandoning the Confederate cause. -
Near the end of the American Civil War, incumbent President Abraham Lincoln of the National Union Party easily defeated the Democratic nominee, former General George B. McClellan, by a wide margin of 212–21 in the electoral college, with 55% of the popular vote.
-
Passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the United States. -
Congress passed “An Act to establish a Bureau for the Relief of Freedmen and Refugees” to provide food, shelter, clothing, medical services, and land to displaced Southerners, including newly freed African Americans. -
President Lincoln delivered his Second Inaugural Address on March 4, 1865. In the address he urged people to "bind up the nation's wounds" caused by the Civil War and to move toward a lasting peace.
-
The Rebel capital of Richmond, Virginia, falls to the Union, the most significant sign that the Confederacy is nearing its final days. For ten months, General Ulysses S. Grant had tried unsuccessfully to infiltrate the city. -
In Appomattox, Virginia, on April 9, 1865, Robert E. Lee surrenders his 28,000 Confederate troops to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, effectively ending the American Civil War.
-
Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States, was shot in the head by confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth, at Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C.
-
John Wilkes Booth is killed when Union soldiers track him down to a Virginia farm 12 days after he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.