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The Election of Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln won the party's presidential nomination. Lincoln faced Douglas, who represented the Northern faction of a heavily divided Democratic Party. -
The dates each of the 11 southern states seceded the Union
South Carolina- December 20,1860
MIssissippi- January 9, 1861
Flordia- January 10,1861
Alabama- January 11, 1861
Georgia- January 19, 1861
Lousiana- January 26,1861
Texas- Feburary 1, 1861
Virginia- April 17, 1861
Arkansas- May 6, 1861
North Carolina- May 20, 1861
Tennessee- May 6, 1861 -
Confederate States of America is formed Jefferson Davis is named President
Jefferson Davis unopposed and was elected to serve for a six-year term. He had already been a temporary president for about a year. -
The start of the attack on Fort Sumter
South Carolina seceded from the Union on December 20, 1860. major Robert Anderson and 85 soldiers were placed at Fort Moultrie near the mouth of Charlston Harbor.On Saturday, April 13, Anderson surrendered the fort after a long battle. Luckly in the battle no soldiers lives were lost. The terms of the surrender alled Anderson to do a 100-gun salute before they left the next day. The salute was cut down to 50 -
The surrender of Fort Sumter to the Confederacy
After a 33 hour bombardment by the Confederate cannons, the Union forces surrender Fort Sumter in the South Carolina's Charleston Harbor. The first engagment of the war ended in a rebel victory. -
The First Battle of Bull Run
The Confederate forces won the battle. The Battle convinced the Lincoln Administration and the North that the Civil War would be a long and hard costly affair. Major General George B. McClellan was replaced by McDowell. -
General Ulysses S. Grant gets Union victiories at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in Tennessee
On Febuary 16, 1862 Confederate soldiers were shocked to see that there were white flags waving over the Confederate works. Buckner than sent Grant a messge to discuss the terms of surrender. Grant then states that the only terms he will except is immediate surrender. Grant then moved into the works and tool it over. The men lost for both sides accounted for was 4,332. -
The Battle of the Ironclads
After four hours a canon blast form the Virginia hit the Monitor's piolthouse, temperarily blinding Union Leutienent John L. Worden, the captain. The Virginia then escaoed to Norfolk, -
David Farragut and the Union Navy captures New Orleans
Farragut was befreinded as a youth in New Orleans by Captain David Porter, who adopted him. Farragut was assigned to command the Union blockage squadron in the western Gulf of Mexico with orders to enter the Mississippi River and capture New Orleans, a port through which the South was receiving a lot of its war supplies, Although the War Department had recommended that he first reduce the two forts that lay some -
The start of the battle of Shiloh
The Federal Force had around 40,000 men and they out numbered Baeuregard's men of 30,000. William Nelson's division of Buell's army launched an attack at 6:00 am in April 7. Baeuregard right after ordered a counterattack. Beaurgard's counterattack was sucsessful at first, the Union resistance stiffened and the Confedrates were compelled to fall back to regroup. Baeuregard ordered another counterattack. Baeuregard relized he was outnumbered and -
The second battle of Bull Run
Lee nad Longstret launched a massive counterattck against the Union left. Longstreet's wing swept Eastward towards where the Confederates hoped to cut off the pope's escape. Union forces mounted a defense on the Chinn Ridge which bought time for the Pope to shift enough troops onto Henry Hill to fend off any disasters. Pope pulled his beaten army off the field and across Bull Run. a final COnfederate effort to -
General Robert E Lee is given command of the Army of the Northern Virginia
He assumed his postion in a battle to defend the city of Richmond from the Union forces. Before taking the position Lee had limited success, suffering from a string of defeats in the earlier stages of the war. In Richmond Lee sought to inspire his troops by sticking to the Virginia's military tradition. -
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The Seven Days Battle
Over the Seven Days the Army of Northern Virginia would deliver blow afyer blow at the Beaver Dam Creek. Lee would move in a new era of offensive combat. That would force the evacuation of the Union army from the region. Lee won the victory of the seven days, which meant the fighting of the Civil War would continue for three more years. -
The Battle of Antietam
Lee commited his entire force a the Battle of Antietam, while McClellan sent in less than three-quarters of his Federal Force. During the night both armies tended to the wounded and consolidated their lines. The Battle of Antietam is considered a draw form a military veiw point, but Abraham Lincoln and the Union claimed the victory. -
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The Battle of Fredricksburg
As the darkness creeped up on the battlefeild sprawled with dead and wounded, it was clear that a signal Confederate victory was at hand. The Army of the Potomac had suffered nearly 13,300 causalties. Less's army had suffered some 4,500 losses. After six weeks after the Battle of Fredricksburg, President Lincoln removed Burnside from command of the Army of the Potomac. -
President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation
As the Nation approached its thrid year of the bloody Civil War President Lincoln issed the Emabcipation Proclamation. The Emancipation Proclamation declared, "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." -
The Union enacts or passes a law creating the first military draft of men into the army
The act called for registration of all males between the ages of 20- 45 years of age.This includes aliens with the intention of becoming citizens byt April 1. Exemptions from the draft could be bought for $300 or by finding a substitute draftee. The act causes riots in New York City. -
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The Battle of Chancellorsville
Hooker re-crossed the Rappahannock River to its left bank, early on May 6. The campaign had cost him about 18,00 men lost and his enemy about 13,000. None of the losses on either side would resonate as loudly and long as the death of the Stonewall Jackson Battle. -
Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson dies
Jackson dies of pneumonia a week after his own troops accidentally fired on him during the Battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia. In the first two years of the war, Jackson terrorized Union commanders and led his army on a daring marches. -
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The Capture of Vicksburg
Union victories at Champion Hill and Big Black Bridge weakend Pemberton's forces, leaving the Confederate cheif with no alternative, but to retreat to the Vicksburg's defenses. Grant determined to lay siege to the city to avoid further loss of life. Soldiers and civilians alike endured the privation of siege warefare for 47 days beofre the surrender of the Pemberton's forces. -
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The Battle of Gettysburg
Cavalry battles raged to the East and South, but the main event was a dramatic infantry assault by 12,000 Confedrates against the center of the Union line, The charge was repulsed by Union rifle and arillery fire, at great losses to the COnfederate army. Lee led his army on a retreat back to Virginia. 51,000 soldiers frm both sides was kiiled, wounded, captured, or missing in the three-day battle. -
The opening of the Confederate prisoner of war camp Anderosnville
Captail Henry Wirz overlooked the prisoner camp. Conditions were becoming terrible as new captives were coming. Dsease was spreading fast and there was little medicine for the sick. Some prisoners died of starvation, dysentery, or parasitic, bacterial, fungal deiseases. Fights were beginning to increase in the prison. Even though it was only fourteen months they had already in prisoned 45,000, which a thid died. Captain Wirz was then hanged in November 10, 1865 for war crimes. -
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The Battles of the Wilderness
On the 7th of May both sides waited the attack. Realizing that he couldn't make any further headway in the Wilderness, Grant ordered Meade's army to pull out of the works after dark and head for Spotsylvania Court House. He suffered 20,000 casualties, nearly twice as many as Lee. -
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The Battle of Spotsylvania
The Stubborn stand by Confederate troops at the Bloody Angle gave Lee the time he needed to construct a new line of earthworks across the base of the Muleshoe Salient. Grant slid his army to the left. When Union troops finally moved forward toward this position early. hey were met by the masses artillery fire and easilly repulsed. Grant called off the attack and resumed shifting his troops to the left. -
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The Battle at Cold Harbor
The days were filled with minor attacks and sniping. Lee and Grant had a two hour truce to allow the Federals a chance to retrive their wounded. Grant sent Sheridan to destroy the Virginia Central Railroad to the west and then ordered Meade to evacuate Cold Harbor and proceed toward Petersburg. -
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The Battle of Petersburg
The Federal troops utilized the ravine, through which Highway 36 now runs, to gain the rear of Battery Five, throwing the defenders from the 26th Virginia and single battery of artillery into a panic attack. The Confederates ended up surrendering. -
President Lincoln is re-elected for a 2nd term
Northern voters overwhelmingly endorse the leadership and politics of Lincoln. A negotiation settlement with Confederacy vanished with the re-election. -
Union General William T. Sherman burns Atlanta, Georgia to the ground and begins his March to the sea
The Confederate army headed West into Tennessee and Alabama attcking Union supply lines as they went. Major George Thomas took some 60,000 men to meet the Confederates in Nashville, while Sherman took the remaining 62,000 on an offensive to march through Georgia. -
Union General William T. Sherman finishes his March to the sea and captures Savannah, Georgia
Sherman flooded the area, but he was low on supplies. Howard dispatched Captain William Duncan and two comrades to comrades to contact the Union fleet, but nothing from them for several days. Duncan located a Union gunboat that carried him to Hilton Head, South Carolina. Supply ships were sent to Savannah. Duncan continued on to Washington D.C. to deliver the news that the March to the Sea to Secretaryor War was successful, -
The Confederate capitol of Richmond, Virginia falls or is captured by the Union army
General Grant had tried to infiltrate the city unsuccessfully. After that Lee made a despreate attack against Fort Stedman along the Union line. Grant prepared fro a mjor offensive. He struck at Five Forks crushing the end of Lee's line.The Confederates then collapsed. -
The Confederacy and General Robert E Lee surrendered to Grant Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia
After the fall of Richmond and Petersburg Lee had been attempting to escape to the West to link up with another Confederate army under Joseph E. Johnston. The fast moving Union Army of the Potomac positioneditself to cut off Lee's bedraggled army as it moved towards Lynchburg, Virginia. -
President Lincoln dies and Vice President Andrew Johnson takes over as President of the U.S.
Andrew Johnson assumed office after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson was the first American president to be impeached. Johnson grew up poor and lacked a fromal education.
