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Republican Party is formed
The Republican Party emerged in 1854 to combat the Kansas–Nebraska Act and the expansion of slavery into American territories. The early Republican Party consisted of northern Protestants, factory workers, professionals, businessmen, prosperous farmers, and after 1866, former black slaves. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act passed
Kansas was admitted as a free state in January 1861 only weeks after eight Southern states seceded from the union. Douglas hoped this idea of “popular sovereignty” would resolve the mounting debate over the future of slavery in the United States and enable the country to expand westward. -
Abraham Lincoln elected president
Lincoln was elected the 16th president. He was the first Republican president and his victory was entirely due to his support in the North and West. Lincoln had 180 votes to 123 for his opponents. -
South Carolina votes to secede from the United States
South Carolina became the first state to secede from the federal Union. The victory of Abraham Lincoln presidential election triggered disunion across the slaveholder south. -
Confederate forces fire on Fort Sumter
Confederate forces occupied Fort Sumter and used it to marshal a defense of Charleston Harbor. Once it was completed and better armed, Fort Sumter allowed the Confederates to create a valuable hole in the Union blockade of the Atlantic seaboard. -
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. Under this order, commanders could arrest and detain individuals who were deemed threatening to military operations. -
First Battle of Bull Run is fought
Marked the first major land battle of the American Civil War. The engagement began when about 35,000 Union troops marched from the federal capital in Washington, D.C. to strike a Confederate force of 20,000 along a small river known as Bull Run. Each side had about 18,000 poorly trained and poorly led troops in their first battle. It was a Confederate victory, followed by a disorganized retreat of the Union forces. -
Jefferson Davis elected president of the Confederacy
On this date Jefferson Davis was elected President of the Confederate Sates of America. -
The Merrimack and the Monitor fight of the Virginia coast
During the American Civil War this was history's first naval battle between ironclad warships.It was part of a Confederate effort to break the Union blockade of Southern ports, including Norfolk and Richmond, Virginia, that had been imposed at the start of the war. -
Battle of Shiloh
The battle began when the Confederate Army launched a surprise attack on Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant in southwestern Tennessee. After initial successes, the Confederates were unable to hold their positions and were forced back, resulting in a Union victory. -
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 on June 1, 1862, in a battle to defend the city of Richmond from Union forces. -
Battle of Antietam
One of the deadliest battles in American military history, showed that the Union could stand against the Confederate army in Eastern theater. -
Battle of Fredericksburg
A major defeat fro the Union Army, even though the Union out numbered the Confederates they suffered over twice as many casualties. The battle signaled the low-point of the war for the Union -
Emancipation Proclamation is announced
The proclamation issued by President Lincoln freed the people held as slaves in those territories still in rebellion against the Union. -
Battle of Chancellorsville
Chancellorsville is known as Lee's "perfect battle" because his risky decision to divide his army in the presence of a much larger enemy force resulted in a significant Confederate victory. -
Battle of Gettysburg
Turning point of the Civil war, costing the Union 23,000 killed, wounded, or missing in action. The Confederates suffered 25,000 causalities. The Civil War ended with the surrender of General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. -
Confederates surrender at Vicksburg
The Confederacy is torn in two when General John C. Pemberton surrenders to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Vicksburg, Mississippi. In three weeks, Grant's men marched 180 miles, won five battles, and took 6,000 prisoners. -
New York City draft riots
When the anger of working-class New Yorkers over a new federal draft law during the Civil War sparked five days of some of the bloodiest and most destructive rioting in U.S. history. -
Lincoln gives his Gettysburg Address
In it, he invoked the principles of human equality contained in the Declaration of Independence and connected the sacrifices of the Civil War with the desire for “a new birth of freedom,” as well as the all-important preservation of the Union created in 1776 and its ideal of self-government -
Atlanta is captured
Union Army General William Tecumseh Sherman lays siege to Atlanta, Georgia, a critical Confederate hub, shelling civilians and cutting off supply lines. The Confederates retreated, destroying the city's munitions as they went. -
Abraham Lincoln defeats George McClellan to win re-election
Lincoln's re-election ensured that he would preside over the successful conclusion of the Civil War. Lincoln's victory made him the first president to win re-election since Andrew Jackson in 1832, as well as the first Northern president to ever win re-election. -
Sherman begins his March to the Sea
Union General William T. Sherman led some 60,000 soldiers on a 285-mile march from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia. The purpose of Sherman's March to the Sea was to frighten Georgia's civilian population into abandoning the Confederate cause. -
Congress passes the 13th Amendment
The 13th amendment, which formally abolished slavery in the United States, passed the Senate on April 8, 1864, and the House on January 31, 1865. -
Freedman’s Bureau is created
Congress passed this act to provide food, shelter, clothing, medical services, and land to displaced Southerners, including newly freed African Americans. -
Lincoln gives his second inaugural address
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. Wanted the North and South to fix there relationship -
Richmond falls to the Union Army
Confederate lines near Petersburg broke after a nine month seige. The retreat of the army left the Confederate capital of Richmond, 25 miles to the north, defenseless. -
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
Lee decided to surrender his army of 28,000 Confederate troops 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 -
President Lincoln assassinated
John Wilkes Booth became the first American assassinate when he shot and killed president Abraham Lincoln in his box at Fords Threader in Washington. John was a supporter of slavery and was convinced that Lincoln wanted to overthrow the Constitution and destroy his beloved South. -
John Wilkes Booth is killed
Booth died of his neck injury, His body was swiftly taken to Washington, D.C., and secretly buried in the city's Old Penitentiary.