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Texas Annexation
During his tenure, U.S. President James K. Polk oversaw the greatest territorial expansion of the United States to date. Polk accomplished this through the annexation of Texas in 1845, the negotiation of the Oregon Treaty with Great Britain in 1846, and the conclusion of the Mexican-American War in 1848, which ended with the signing and ratification of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in 1848. -
50-40 of Fight
In 1818, the United States and the United Kingdom established a joint claim over the Oregon Territory the region west of the Rocky Mountains and between 42° North and 54°40' North. -
Willmot Proviso
Wilmot Proviso 1846, amendment to a bill put before the U.S. House of Representatives during the Mexican War; it provided an appropriation of $2 million to enable President Polk to negotiate a territorial settlement with Mexico. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidago
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the U.S. Mexican War. Signed on 2 February 1848, it is the oldest treaty still in force between the United States and Mexico. As a result of the treaty the United States acquired more than 500,000 square miles of valuable territory and emerged as a world power in the late nineteenth century. -
Compromise of 1850
Passed by the U.S. Congress in an effort to settle several outstanding slavery issues and to avert the threat of dissolution of the Union. -
Uncle Toms Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin was a sensation upon its publication in 1852. In its first year it sold 300,000 copies and has since been translated into more than twenty languages. This powerful story of one slave's unbreakable spirit holds an important place in American history as it helped solidify the anti-slavery sentiments of the North and moved a nation to civil war. -
Gadsen Purchase
The Gadsden Purchase or Treaty was an agreement between the United States and Mexico finalized in 1854, in which the United States agreed to pay Mexico $10 million for a 29,670 square mile portion of Mexico that later became part of Arizona and New Mexico. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise, allowing slavery in the territory north of the 36° 30´ latitude.Introduced by Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois the Kansas-Nebraska Act stipulated that the issue of slavery would be decided by the residents of each territory a concept known as popular sovereignty. -
Election of 1860
The Democrats met in Charleston, South Carolina, in April 1860 to select their candidate for President in the upcoming election. There were plenty of potential candidates but in the end Abraham Lincoln had emerged as the best choice. -
Firing on Fort Sumter
Attempts by the Confederate government to settle its differences with the Union were spurned by Lincoln and the Confederacy felt it could no longer tolerate the presense of a foreign force in its territory. Believing a conflict to be inevitable, Lincoln ingeniously devised a plan that would cause the Confederates to fire the first shot and he hoped inspire the states that had not yet seceded to unite in the effort to restore the Union. -
First battle of Bull Run
This was the first major land battle of the armies in Virginia. On July 16, 1861, the untried Union army under Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell marched from Washington against the Confederate army which was drawn up behind Bull Run beyond Centreville. -
Battle of Antietam
The Army of the Potomac under the command of George McClellan, mounted a series of powerful assaults against Robert E. Lee’s forces near Sharpsburg, Maryland on September 17, 1862. The morning assault and vicious Confederate counterattacks swept back and forth through Miller’s Cornfield and the West Woods. Later towards the center of the battlefield, Union assaults against the Sunken Road pierced the Confederate center after a terrible struggle. -
Battle of Gettysburg
On July 1, Confederates drove Union defenders through Gettysburg to Cemetery Hill. The next day Lee struck the flanks of the Union line resulting in severe fighting at Devil's Den, Little Round Top, the Wheatfield, Peach Orchard, Culp’s Hill and East Cemetery Hill. -
Shermans March
Sherman's March to the Sea is the name commonly given to the Savannah Campaign conducted through Georgia from November 15, 1864 to December 21, 1864 by Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman of the Union Army in the American Civil War. -
Appomattox Courthouse
The Confederates advanced initially gaining ground against Sheridan’s cavalry. The arrival of Union infantry, however, stopped the advance in its tracks. Lee’s army was now surrounded on three sides. Lee surrendered to Grant on April 9.
