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Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly, is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War", according to Will Kaufman. -
Republican Party is Formed
Anti-slavery Whigs had begun meeting in the upper midwestern states to discuss the formation of a new party. One such meeting, in Ripon, Wisconsin is generally remembered as the founding meeting of the Republican Party. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed by the U.S. Congress. It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. The Act served to repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which prohibited slavery in the north. -
Dred Scott vs. Sandford Decision
In Dred Scott v. Sandford (argued 1856, decided 1857), the Supreme Court ruled that Americans of African descent, whether free or slave, were not American citizens and could not sue in federal court. The Court also ruled that Congress lacked power to ban slavery in the U.S. territories. -
John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry
Started an armed slave revolt by taking over the arsenal at Harper's Ferry. As a result, John Brown was hanged. -
John Brown Hanged
In Charles Town, Virginia, militant abolitionist John Brown is executed on charges of treason, murder, and insurrection. -
Abraham Lincoln's Election
Lincoln was the 16th President, and the first Republican President. Lincoln only got 40% of the popular vote but beat out the other candidates -
South Carolina Secession
With the election in 1860 of Abraham Lincoln, who ran on a message of containing slavery to where it currently existed, and the success of the Republican Party to which he belonged – the first entirely regional party in US history – in that election, South Carolina seceded -
Robert E. Lee Named Commander of Army of North Virginia
Robert E. Lee served as a military officer in the U.S. Army, a West Point commandant and the legendary general of the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. In June 1861, Lee assumed command of the Army of Northern Virginia, which he would lead for the rest of the war. -
Confederates Fire on Fort Sumpter
Confederate guns around the harbor opened fire on Fort Sumter. At 2:30pm on April 13th, Major Robert Anderson, garrison commander, surrendered the fort and was evacuated the next day. The Union would not recapture Fort Sumter for nearly four years. -
Richmond Becomes Confederate Capital
After the Confederate Army fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, on April 12, 1861, beginning the Civil War, additional states seceded. Shortly thereafter, in recognition of Virginia's strategic importance, the Confederate capital was moved to Richmond. -
Lincoln Suspends Habeas Corpus
When Congress was called into special session, President Lincoln issued a message to both houses defending his various actions, including the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, arguing that it was both necessary and constitutional for him to have suspended it without Congress. -
First Battle of Bull Run
Union and Confederate armies clashed near Manassas Junction, Virginia, in the first major land battle of the American Civil War. Known as the First Battle of Bull Run (or Manassas), 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. -
Jefferson Davis Election
Davis was elected a six year term as Confederate President. -
Battle of Hampton Roads
between the Monitor and the Merrimack during the American Civil War was history’s first duel between ironclad warships. The engagement, known as the Battle of Hampton Roads, 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. Though the battle itself was inconclusive, it began a new era in naval warfare. -
Battle of Shiloh
The Battle of Shiloh was a battle in the Western Theater of the American Civil War in southwestern Tennessee. A Union force known as the Army of the Tennessee had moved via the Tennessee River deep into Pittsburg Landing on the west bank of the Tennessee River. The Confederate Army of Mississippi launched a surprise attack on Tennessee from its base in Corinth, Mississippi. The Union forces began an unexpected counterattack the next morning. -
Battle of Antietam
Fought between Robert E. Lee and George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac. It was the first field army in the Civil War, and remains the bloodiest day in American history. -
Battle of Fredericksburg
Fought in Fredericksburg Virginia between Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of North Virginia and Ambrose Burnside's Union Army of the Potomac. The Union attacked the Confederates, and was one of the most one-sided battles. -
Emancipation Proclamation
Executive order issued by Lincoln. It changed the legal status of 3 million slaves in the South from slave to free -
Battle of Gettysburg
Part if the American Civil War. After the victory at Chancellorsville, Robert E. Lee took the Army of North Virginia to Pennsylvania. It was the bloodiest battle of the Civil War. -
Battle of Chancellorsville
The Battle of Chancellorsville resulted in a Confederate victory that stopped an attempted flanking movement by Maj. Gen. Joseph "Fighting Joe" Hooker's Army of the Potomac against the left of Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. -
Confederates Surrendered: Vicksburg
The full campaign, since March 29, claimed 10,142 Union and 9,091 Confederate killed and wounded. In addition to his surrendered men, Pemberton turned over to Grant 172 cannons and 50,000 rifles. -
NYC Draft Riots
The New York City draft riots, known at the time as Draft Week, were violent disturbances in Lower Manhattan, widely regarded as the culmination of working-class discontent with new laws passed by Congress that year to draft men to fight in the ongoing American Civil War. -
Gettysburg Address
Delivered by Lincoln during the Civil War at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery. It talked about the principles of human equality and proclaimed the Civil War as a struggle. -
Atlanta is Captured
Continuing their summer campaign to seize the important rail and supply center of Atlanta, Union forces commanded by William Tecumseh Sherman overwhelmed and defeated Confederate forces defending the city under John Bell Hood. Union Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson was killed during the battle. -
Lincoln Defeated McClellan
In the election, Lincoln defeated Democratic nominee George B. McClellan. His re-election ensured there would be a conclusion to the Civil War. -
Sherman's March to the Sea
A military campaign of the American Civil War conducted through Georgia Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman of the Union Army. The campaign began with Sherman's troops leaving the captured city of Atlanta and ended with the capture of the port of Savannah. His forces destroyed military targets as well as industry, and infrastructure. The operation broke the back of the Confederacy and lead to its eventual surrender. Sherman's bold move is considered to be one of the major achievements of the war. -
Richmond Falls to the Union
After a long siege, Grant captured Petersburg and Richmond in early April 1865. As the fall of Petersburg became imminent, on Evacuation Sunday, President Davis, his Cabinet and the Confederate defenders abandoned Richmond and fled south on the last open railroad line, the Richmond and Danville. -
13th Amendment
Passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, the 13th amendment abolished slavery in the United States. 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. -
Freedmen's Bureau
The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, usually referred to as simply the Freedmen's Bureau, was an agency of the United States Department of War to "direct such issues of provisions, clothing, and fuel, as he may deem needful for the immediate and temporary shelter and supply of destitute and suffering refugees and freedmen and their wives and children." -
Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address
Lincoln taking the oath at his second inauguration, March 4, 1865. Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address was delivered on March 4, 1865, during the final days of the Civil War and only a month before he was assassinated. -
Robert E Lee Surrenders at Appomattox
At Appomattox, Virginia, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders his 28,000 troops to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, effectively ending the American Civil War. Forced to abandon the Confederate capital of Richmond, blocked from joining the surviving Confederate force in North Carolina, and harassed constantly by Union cavalry, Lee had no other option. -
Lincoln's Assassination
Assassinated by John Wilkes Booth during a play in Washington D.C. -
Death of John Wilkes Booth
Booth remains inside the barn. As the officer in charge of the cavalry tries to negotiate with Booth, someone at the back of the barn lights some straw and fire spreads throughout the structure. Booth at first moves towards the fire, then turns and hops towards the door. A shot rings out fired by Sergeant Boston Corbett. Booth falls, paralyzed. Carried to the porch of the farmhouse, Lincoln's assassin lingers between life and death finally succumbing around seven in the morning.
