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April 1861 On April 4, the Virginia secession convention votes 89-45 against an ordinance of secession.
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July 1861 First Battle of Bull Run: On July 21, Union forces under General Irvin McDowell are repelled by Confederate troops stationed at Manassas Junction, Virginia, dashing Union hopes for a quick end to the war.
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April 1862 General David Hunter, Union commander in the South Carolina Sea Islands, requests permission to enlist African Americans for military service. When he received no response, he began to enlist black soldiers in early May. When the War Department refuses to pay or equip the soldiers, Hunter dissolved the regiment.
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At the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee, the first major battle in the Civil War’s Western theater, a Union victory allows Union forces to gain control of the Confederate railway system at Corinth, Mississippi.
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April-August 1862 In its first major offensive in the Eastern theater, Union forces under General George B. McClellan fail to capture Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital.
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April-August 1862 In its first major offensive in the Eastern theater, Union forces under General George B. McClellan fail to capture Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital.( They did not have anymore for this date)
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September 1862 In a failed attempt to prompt Britain and France to recognize the Confederacy and to bring the war to an early end, Robert E. Lee launches his first invasion of the North. At the battle of Antietam near Sharpsburg, Maryland, more than 23,000 men killed, wounded, and missing in a single day, September 17,1862. In the bloodiest battle of the war, 2,108 Union soldiers were killed and 9,549 wounded and 2,700 Confederates were killed and 9,029 wounded.
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December 1862 Confederate President Davis issues proclamation ordering that black Union soldiers and their officers captured by Confederate troops are not to be treated as prisoners of war.
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May 1863 Ulysses S. Grant begins a six-week siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi, which ultimately forces the Confederacy to surrender 30,000 soldiers
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The surrender of Vicksburg, Mississippi, on July 4 and Fort Hudson, Louisiana, on July 8 give the Union control of the Mississippi River and splits the Confederacy in two.
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July 1864 Lee’s defeat at the battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania ends Confederate hopes of recognition by European governments.
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November 1863 Union forces force Confederate troops away from Chattanooga, a vital railroad center. Chattanooga provided the base for General William Tecumseh Sherman's campaign against Atlanta.
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July 1864 Confederate General Jubal Early led his forces into Maryland to relieve the pressure on Lee's army. Early got within five miles of Washington, D.C., but was driven back to Virginia.
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November 1864 Abraham Lincoln is re-elected president.
December 1864 Union General William Tecumseh Sherman’s army concludes its march through Georgia by capturing Savannah.( It goes from november to december but it does not let me put that) -
April, 1865 Robert E. Lee evacuates Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital, April 2