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Abraham Lincoln is elected President, with Hannibal Hamlin as his vice president;
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As a consequence of Lincoln's election, South Carolina legisl;ature votes to secede from the Union.
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Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas follow South Carolina’s lead and secede from the Union.
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Star of the West, a merchan vessel secretly carrying federal troups and supplies to Fort Sumter, is fired upon by South Carolina artillery.
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Kansas is admitted as a state with a constitution prohibiting slavery.
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Delegates from six seceded states meet in Montgomery, Alabama, to form a government and elect Jefferson Davis President of the Confederate States of America.
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Fort Sumter is bombarded and surrenders to South Carolina troops led by P. G. T. Beauregard.
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Lincoln declares a state of insurrection and calls for 75,000 volunteers to enlist for three months of service.
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Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina secede from the Union.
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Julia Ward Howe, inspired after seeing a review of General McClellan's army in the Virginia countryside near Washington, composes the lyrics to "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." It is published in the Atlantic Monthly in February 1862.
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Union General Ulysses S. Grant prevails at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee, but not without enormous losses.
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The South is again victorious at the Second Battle of Manassas.
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The Battle of Antietam, Maryland, exacts heavy losses on both sides.
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Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, which declares that slaves in the seceded states are now free.
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The Battle of Gettysburg is fought in Pennsylvania. General George G. Meade compromises his victory by allowing Lee to retreat South across the Potomac.
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After a long siege, Confederates surrender Vicksburg to Ulysses S. Grant, thus securing the Mississippi River for the Union.
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Lincoln delivers his Gettysburg Address, in which he reiterates the nation’s fundamental principle that all men are created equal.
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After three days of battle, the Union victory at Chattanooga, Tennessee, opens the way for Union advancement into the heart of the Confederacy.
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Newly commissioned to the rank of lieutenant general, Ulysses S. Grant is given official authority to command all of the armies of the United States.
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Lincoln signs a bill repealing the fugitive slave laws.
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After forcing the Confederate army of John Bell Hood out of Atlanta, Georgia, General William T. Sherman captures the city, a major munitions center for the South.
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A Union victory at Cedar Creek ends the Confederate threat in the Shenandoah Valley
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Sherman leaves Atlanta and begins his “march to the sea,” in an attempt to demoralize the South and hasten surrender.
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Savannah falls to Sherman’s army without resistance. Sherman gives the city to Lincoln as a Christmas present.
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Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolishes slavery throughout the United States.
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Abraham Lincoln is elected for a second term!
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Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia to Grant at Appomattox. This is considered the end of the Civil War.
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Abraham Lincoln is assinated by John Wilkes Booth!
