Civil War Virtual Timeline

  • Republican Party is formed

    Republican Party is formed

    Former members of the Whig Party meet to establish a new party to oppose the spread of slavery into the western territories
  • Kansas-Nebraska Act passed

    Kansas-Nebraska Act passed

    The Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise
  • Abraham Lincoln elected president

    Abraham Lincoln elected president

    This demonstrated the division within the United States just before the Civil War.
  • South Carolina votes to secede from the United States

    South Carolina votes to secede from the United States

    The secession convention convened in Columbia on December 17 and voted unanimously, 169-0, to declare secession from the United States.
  • Lincoln gives his second inaugural address

    Lincoln gives his second inaugural address

    Four years of a terrible national crisis, Lincoln uses his Second Inaugural to gently, but clearly, call out slavery as the reason for the war.
  • Confederate forces fire on Fort Sumter

    Confederate forces fire on Fort Sumter

    This marked the official beginning of the American Civil War.
  • Lincoln suspends habeas corpus

    Lincoln suspends habeas corpus

    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
  • First Battle of Bull Run is fought

    First Battle of Bull Run is fought

    The First Battle o Bull Run, marked the first major land battle of the American Civil War.
  • Jefferson Davis elected president of the Confederacy

    Jefferson Davis elected president of the Confederacy

    Presided over the South's creation of its own armed forces and acquisition of weapons
  • The Merrimack and the Monitor fight of the Virginia coast

    The Merrimack and the Monitor fight of the Virginia coast

    This was history's first duel between ironclad warships and the beginning of a new ear of naval warfare
  • Battle of Shiloh

    Battle of Shiloh

    This was a crucial victory for the Union during the 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

    The confederate forces were on command in a battle to defend the city of Richmond from Union forces.
  • Battle of Antietam

    Battle of Antietam

    This showed that the Union could stand against the Confederate army in the Eastern theater.
  • Battle of Fredericksburg

    Battle of Fredericksburg

    This was one of the largest and deadliest battles of the Civil War.
  • Emancipation Proclamation is announced

    Emancipation Proclamation is announced

    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

    This was a huge victory for the Confederacy and General Robert E. Lee during the Civil War.
  • Battle of Gettysburg

    Battle of Gettysburg

    It stopped the Confederate momentum in the Eastern Theater and it probably killed any chance of Europe intervening
  • Confederates surrender at Vicksburg

    Confederates surrender at Vicksburg

    General John C. Bremerton surrenders to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Vicksburg Mississippi.
  • New York City draft riots

    New York City draft riots

    This was when the anger of working-class New Yorkers over a new federal draft law during the Civil War
  • Lincoln gives his Gettysburg Address

    Lincoln gives his Gettysburg Address

    President Abraham Lincoln delivered a short speech at the close of ceremonies dedication the battlefield cemetery at Gettysburg, PA
  • Atlanta is captured

    Atlanta is captured

    During the Civil War, the fall of Atlanta proved to be a blow from which the Confederacy never recovered
  • Abraham Lincoln defeats George McClellan to win re-election

    Abraham Lincoln defeats George McClellan to win re-election

    Near the end of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln easily defeated the Democratic nominee. (212-21)
  • Sherman begins his March to the Sea

    Sherman begins his March to the Sea

    Union General William T. Sherman begins his expedition across Georgia by torching the industrial section Atlanta and pulling away from his supply lines.
  • Congress passes the 13th Amendment

    Congress passes the 13th Amendment

    The 13th amendment abolished slavery in the United States
  • Freedman’s Bureau is created

    Freedman’s Bureau is created

    This is when the 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.
  • Richmond falls to the Union Army

    Richmond falls to the Union Army

    This was when Confederate lines near Petersburg broke after a none month siege. The retreat of the army left the Confederate capital of Richmond, 25 miles to the north, defenseless
  • Richmond becomes the capital of the Confederacy

    Richmond becomes the capital of the Confederacy

    This was once Virginia seceded, the Confederate government moved the capital to Richmond
  • President Lincoln Assassinated

    President Lincoln Assassinated

    A famous actor killed Lincoln while he was watching a play in a press box.
  • John Wilkes Booth is killed

    John Wilkes Booth is killed

    HA tip led the Union soldiers back to the Garrett farm, where they discovered Booth and Harold in the barn. His last words were, "useless, useless."
  • Robert E. Lee surrenders at Appomattox

    Robert E. Lee surrenders at Appomattox

    Virginia, Robert E. Lee surrenders him 28,000 Confederate troops to Union General Ulysses S.Grant.