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The fugitive slave act was a law that allowed citizens to capture slaves and return them back to their states that they were before
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Creating the Kansas and Nebraska territories
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U.S. Marines storm engine house at Harpers Ferry and capture John Brown
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Abraham Lincoln wins the 1860 election unanimously
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South Carolina officially secedes from the Union, becoming the first state to do so.
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Confederate forces under General Beauregard bombard Major Robert Anderson and his Union soldiers at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina
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General McDowell of the Union is defeated causing a panicked retreat back to Washington.
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Union General Ulysses S. Grant's forces are surprised at the town of Shiloh in Tennessee. The ensuing battle results in 13,000 Union and 10,000 Confederate casualties.
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General Robert E. Lee attacks George McClellan's Union Army of the Potomac near Richmond, Virginia.
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Battle of Antietam is the bloodiest day in United States history. Though officially a draw, the battle stops General Robert E. Lee's invasion of Maryland and he retreats back to Virginia.
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The Union Army under General Ambrose E. Burnside suffers a horrible defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg in Virginia
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Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation. It frees all slaves in territory captured by the Union Army, and orders the enlistment of Black soldiers
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Over the course of three days, General Robert E. Lee divides his army in the face of a larger enemy, and manages to defeat the Union Army led by "Fighting" Joe Hooker. Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson dies from wounds sustained when he was mistakenly shot by his own troops
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From July 1st to July 4th, the Union Army under General Meade defeats Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. One of the bloodiest battles of the war, Gettysburg is a turning point, and marks the farthest advance of the Confederate Army into Northern territory.
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Ulysses S. Grant takes Vicksburg after a long siege. At this point, the Union controls the entire river, cutting the Confederacy in two.
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President Lincoln delivers the two-minute Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the National Cemetery at the battlefield in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
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General Robert E. Lee surrenders to General Ulysses S. Grant in a farmhouse in the town of Appomattox Court House, Virginia. The war is over
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Abraham Lincoln is shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C.
