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South Carolina was the first to secede from the federal Union. The victory of Lincoln in the 1860 presidential election triggered cries for disunion across the slave holding South. Calling a state convention, the delegates voted to remove the state of South Carolina from the United States. -
Lincoln had promised to not interfere with the institution of slavery where it existed, and pledged to suspend activities of the federal government temporarily in areas of hospitality. He also took a firm stance against succession and the seizure of federal property. -
When Confederate troops marched into the fort, over 3,300 shells and "hot shot" had been fired at the fort during the initial 34-hour bombardment by 43 Confederate guns. The terreplein (top level) was a wreck, and the parade ground was pitted with shell craters. -
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. -
Richmond was Confederacy's most industrial city and Virginia was the largest Confederate state, so Richmond was chosen as the permanent capital for the Confederacy. Richmond's population in 1860 was 38,000 including 11,700 slaves. -
The First Battle of Bull Run marked the first major land battle of the American Civil War. Union and Confederate armies clashed near Manassas Junction, Virginia. -
Jefferson Davis was elected president of the Confederate State of America. He ran without opposition and the election confirmed the decision the Confederate Congress had made earlier in the year. -
Robert E. Lee commanded the Army of Northern Virginia, the most successful of the Southern armies during the American Civil War, and ultimately commanded all the Confederate armies. AS the military leader of the defeated Confederacy, Lee became a symbol of the American South -
The Battle of Monitor and Merrimack is famous because it was the first clash between ironclad warships. This battle changed the future of naval warfare. -
The Battle of Shiloh was a crucial success for the Union Army, led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Tennessee. It allowed Grant to begin a massive operation in the Mississippi Valley later that year. -
The Union victory at Antietam gave Lincoln the opportunity to announce the Emancipation Proclamation. This made the Battle of Antietam one of the key turning points of the American Civil War. -
The Battle of Fredericksburg was from December 11, 1862 - December 15, 1862. It was a battle with lots of 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, 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 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. Its 30,764 casualties made Chancellorsville the bloodiest battle in American history. -
The Battle of Gettysburg started from July 1, 1863 - July 3, 1863, around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle was won by the Union army (the North). The Union's victory 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. -
When two major assaults against the Confederate fortifications were repulsed with heavy casualties, Grant decided to besiege the city beginning on May 25. After holding out for more than forty days, with their supplies nearly gone, the garrison surrendered. -
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 gave one of the most famous speeches in the U.S. history at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery. The victory of the U.S. forces marked a turning point in the Civil War. -
General William Tecumseh Sherman lays siege to Atlanta, Georgia, attacking civilians and cutting off supply lines. The Confederates retreated, destroying the city's munitions as they went. -
Towards the end if the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln easily defeated George McClellan by a wide margin of 212-21 in the electoral college, with 55% of the popular vote. McClellan ran an anti-Emancipation Proclamation platform and left it open the possibility of a negotiated peace with the South. As the election approached, Union triumphs on the battlefield helped propel Lincoln to victory. -
Union General William T. Sherman begins his expedition across Georgia by torching the industrial section of Atlanta and pulling away from his supply lines. The operation broke the back of the Confederacy and helped lead to its eventual surrender. -
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. -
Passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the United States.The House of Representatives initially defeated the 13th Amendment by a vote of 93 in favor, 65 opposed, and 23 not voting, which is less than the two-thirds majority needed to pass a Constitutional Amendment. -
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. It was made to help former black slaves and poor whites in the South in the aftermath of the U.S. Civil War. -
In the address, President Lincoln urged people to "bind up the nation's wounds" caused by the Civil War and to move toward a lasting peace. The “scourge of war,” he explained, was best understood as divine punishment for the sin of slavery, a sin in which all Americans, North as well as South, were complicit. -
Lee decided to surrender his army in part because he wanted to prevent unnecessary destruction to the South. When it became clear to the Confederates that they were stretched too thinly to break through the Union lines, Lee observed that "there is nothing left me to do but go and see Gen. -
John Wilkes Booth entered the presidential box at Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C., and shot President Abraham Lincoln. As Lincoln fell forward in his seat, Booth jumped on top of the stage and escaped through the back door. Booth had shot President Lincoln because there were Southern sympathizers who believed that the Confederacy could be restored, and Booth was one of those believers and it was his motive to murder President Lincoln. -
John Wilkes is killed when Union soldiers track him down to a Virginia farm 12 days after he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. Booth's last words were, "When you go out, don't tell them the arms I have."