Civil War Virtual Timeline

  • Republican Party is formed

    Republican Party is formed

    The Republican Party, also referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States
  • Abraham Lincoln elected president

    Abraham Lincoln elected president

    The 1860 United States presidential election was the 19th quadrennial presidential election
  • South Carolina votes to secede from the United States

    South Carolina votes to secede from the United States

    Charleston Mercury on November 3, 1860. South Carolina became the first state to secede from the federal Union on December 20, 1860.
  • Jefferson Davis elected president of the Confederacy

    Jefferson Davis elected president of the Confederacy

    On November 6, 1861, Jefferson Davis, who had been elected president of the Provisional Government of the Confederacy on February 9, 1861—as a compromise between moderates and radicals—was confirmed by the voters for a full six-year term.
  • Confederate forces fire on Fort Sumter

    Confederate forces fire on Fort Sumter

    When President Abraham Lincoln announced plans to resupply the fort, Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard bombarded Fort Sumter.
  • Lincoln suspends habeas corpus

    Lincoln suspends habeas corpus

    Although Maryland did not secede, Southern sympathies were widespread.
  • First Battle of Bull Run is fought

    First Battle of Bull Run is fought

    The First Battle of Bull Run, also known as the Battle of First Manassas, was the first major battle of the American Civil War.
  • The Merrimac and the Monitor fight of the Virginia coast

    The Merrimac and the Monitor fight of the Virginia coast

    Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack, also called Battle of Hampton Roads, (March 9, 1862), in the American Civil War, naval engagement at Hampton Roads, Virginia.
  • Battle of Shiloh

    Battle of Shiloh

    The Battle of Shiloh was an early battle in the Western Theater of the American Civil War
  • Kansas-Nebraska Act passed

    Kansas-Nebraska Act passed

    The Battle of Shiloh was an early battle in the Western Theater of the American Civil War
  • Robert E. Lee is named commander of the Army of Northern Virginia

    Robert E. Lee is named commander of the Army of Northern Virginia

    Originally called the Confederate Army of the Potomac, the confederate forces were renamed the Army of Northern Virginia when Robert E. Lee assumed command
  • Battle of Antietam

    Battle of Antietam

    known as the Battle of Sharpsburg, particularly in the Southern United States, was a battle of the American Civil War
  • Battle of Fredericksburg

    Battle of Fredericksburg

    December 11, 1862 – December 15, 1862
  • Emancipation Proclamation is announced

    Emancipation Proclamation is announced

    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."
  • Battle of Chancellorsville

    Battle of Chancellorsville

    The Battle of Chancellorsville was a major battle of the American Civil War, and the principal engagement of the Chancellorsville campaign.
  • Battle of Gettysburg

    Battle of Gettysburg

    July 1, 1863 – July 3, 1863
  • Confederates surrender at Vicksburg

    Confederates surrender at Vicksburg

    Surrender (July 4) On the hot afternoon of July 3, 1863, a cavalcade of horsemen in gray rode out from the city along the Jackson Road.
  • New York City draft riots

    New York City draft riots

    The New York City draft riots sometimes referred to as the Manhattan draft riots and known at the time as Draft Week.
  • Lincoln gives his Gettysburg Address

    Lincoln gives his Gettysburg Address

    Lincoln delivered one of the most famous speeches in United States history at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery
  • Atlanta is captured

    Atlanta is captured

    Union General William T. Sherman orders the business district of Atlanta, Georgia, destroyed before he embarks on his famous March to the Sea.
  • Abraham Lincoln defeats George McClellan to win re-election

    Abraham Lincoln defeats George McClellan to win re-election

    The 1864 United States presidential election, the 20th quadrennial presidential election
  • Sherman begins his March to the Sea

    Sherman begins his March to the Sea

    Sherman's March to the Sea begins as his troops leave Atlanta
  • Congress passes the 13th Amendment

    Congress passes the 13th Amendment

    Passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, the 13th amendment abolished slavery in the United States.
  • Lincoln gives his second inaugural address

    Lincoln gives his second inaugural address

    Only 41 days before his assassination, President Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office for the second time. Lincoln's second inaugural address previewed his plans for healing a once-divided nation.
  • Richmond falls to the Union Army

    Richmond falls to the Union Army

    On the morning of Sunday, April 2, 1865, Confederate lines near Petersburg broke after a nine-month siege.
  • Freedman’s Bureau is created

    Freedman’s Bureau is created

    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.
  • Richmond becomes the capital of the Confederacy

    Richmond becomes the capital of the Confederacy

    Jefferson Davis and his government traveled to Danville as Richmond fell to the Federal army. The city was the seat of the Confederate government for only eight days.
  • Robert E. Lee surrenders at Appomattox

    Robert E. Lee surrenders at Appomattox

    the end of the Civil War for General Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.
  • President Lincoln assassinated

    President Lincoln assassinated

    John Wilkes Booth kills Lincoln in Peterson house theatre
  • John Wilkes Booth is killed

    John Wilkes Booth is killed

    John Wilkes Booth was an American stage actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C

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