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Lincoln is elected President. This made him the first Republican to receive 180 of 303 electoral votes. "Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free..." - Abraham Lincoln
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South Carolina was the first state to secede. They were followed two months later by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisianna, and Texas.
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Jefferson Davis serves as the president of the Confederate States of America. He was a former U.S. Army officer.
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This would be his second term.
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The Confederates open fire with 50 cannons upon Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. The Civil War begins.
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Virginia is followed by Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. This gave the Confederacy a total of eleven states.
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The Union Army suffers a defeat at Bull Run.
Confederate General Thomas J. Jackson earns the nickname "Stonewall," as his forces resists Union attacks. -
The Confederate Ironclad Merrimack sinks two wooden Union ships and then battles the Union Ironclad 'Monitor' to a draw. This changes Naval warfare forever. This means that there is no longer a need for wooden ships.
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The Confederates perform surprise attack on General Ulysses S. Grant and his unprepared troops at Shiloh. It ended in a bitter struggle with 13,000 Union soldiers killed and wounded and 10,000 Confederates.
This was more men than in all previous American wars combined. -
The Union Army is defeated by the Confederates at the second battle of Bull Run in northern Virginia. Once again the Union Army retreats to Washington.
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This was the bloodiest day in U.S. military history. By nightfall 26,000 men were dead, wounded, or missing. The Confederate Army withdrew to Virginia.
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President Lincoln issues the final Emancipation Proclamation in order to free all slaves in the territories that are being held by Confederates. The war now becomes a revolutionary struggle for the abolition of slavery.
