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Timespan of the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865.
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Lincoln's election finally gave the South the excuse it needed to secede from the Union.
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The first attack on an Union military installation. However, no casualties were recorded during the battle itself.
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Approx. five months after SC secedes from the Union, VA secedes; closely followed by AR, NC, and TN.
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First official battle of the Civil War. Confederacy defeated the Union. Union defeat showed that the war would not be as short as they originally thought. 4,878 total casualties.
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Gen. George McClellan was given orders by President Lincoln to attack the Confederate capitol of Richmond. McClellan ultimately failed. It is also said that if McClellan succeeded in capturing Richmond, then the war would have ended about three years earlier and slavery could still exist.
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Union advance into the Tennesee River Valley. Union victory. 23,746 estimated casualties.
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After about a week of fighting, Union forces capture the Confederate port of New Orleans. New Orleans was the only major sea port that the Confederacy had in its possession.
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Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's counterattack on the Union advance into the South. Confederate victory despite the almost 10,000 more casualties than those inflicted upon the Union forces.
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Engagement between Gen. Robert E. Lee (CSA) and Gen. John Pope (USA). Humiliating defeat for the Union forces. Approx. 22,177 total casualties during the battle (13824 for the Union forces).
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Engagement between Union and Confederate forces at Antietam Creek, Maryland. Lincoln renewed Gen. McClellan's position for this battle. Key to Union victory: two of McClellan's men found Robert E. Lee's battle plans in a cigar packet. Total of 22,717 casualties.
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Largest and deadliest single battle of the Civil War. During the battle, urban warfare was used for the first time in the Civil War. Wave after wave of union reinforcements were marched to the city, but Confederate victory was inevitable. 17,929 total casualties.
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Proclamation put forth by Abraham Lincoln that stated that all slaves in those states "still in rebellion" were not proclaimed to be free, except for those in the border states.
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Robert E. Lee (CSA) defeats Union Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker in Virginia. One of the major Confederate leaders, "Stonewall" Jackson is killed during the battle.
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Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant capture the strategic Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River. Union forces laid siege to the city until they finally captured the city and with it, the entire Mississippi River.
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Lee's second failure to invade the north. Invasion repulsed by the Union army's artillery fire. 51,112 total casualties.
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Abraham and his running mate, Andrew Johnson, defeat former Union Gen. George McClellan for the presidency.
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Union General William Tecumseh Sherman's devasting advance through the Deep South that left nothing but destruction in its wake.
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Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed by the House of Representatives. Slavery is now officially abolished in the United States.
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Confederate General Robert E. Lee and Union General Ulysses S. Grant meet at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia to discuss terms of surrender. The surrender officially ends the Civil War.
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President Lincoln is assassinated in Washington DC by John Wilkes Booth, a known Confederate supporter.
