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Uncle Tom's Cabin is published
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
By February 1854, anti-slavery Whigs had begun meeting in the upper midwestern states to discuss the formation of a new party. One such meeting, in Wisconsin is generally remembered as the founding meeting of the Republican Party. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act passed
It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. -
Dred Scott v. Sandford decision is rendered
Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857) Citation: Judgment in the U.S. Supreme Court Case Dred Scott v. John F.A. In this ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court stated that slaves were not citizens of the United States and, therefore, could not expect any protection from the Federal Government or the courts. -
John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry
John Brown was trying to initiate an armed slave revolt by taking over a United States arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. -
John Brown is hanged
In Charles Town, Virginia, militant abolitionist John Brown is executed on charges of treason, murder, and insurrection. -
Abraham Lincoln elected President
The election of Lincoln led to the secession of several states in the South, and the Civil War would begin with the Battle of Fort Sumter. -
South Carolina votes to secede from the United States
South Carolina was the first slave state to secede from the United States starting a ripple effect. -
Confederate forces fire on Fort Sumter
This was what started the American Civil War, when Confederates fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. -
Richmond becomes the capital of the Confederacy
In the Confederate Capital City of Montgomery, Alabama, the decision was made to name the City of Richmond, Virginia as the new Capital of the Confederacy. -
Lincoln suspends habeas corpus
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 is fought
Bull Run was the first major battle of the Civil War. The North's forces were slow getting into position so the Southern reinforcements had time to show up by train. Each side had about 18,000 inexperienced troops in their first battle. It was a Southern victory, followed by a disorganized retreat of Northern forces. -
Jefferson Davis elected president of the Confederacy
Jefferson Davis was elected to be president of the confederacy for a single six year term. -
The Merrimack and the Monitor fight of the Virginia Coast
It was a naval engagement at Hampton Roads, Virginia, a harbour at the mouth of the James River, notable as history's first duel between ironclad warships and the beginning of a new era of naval warfare. -
Robert E. Lee is named commander of the Army of Northern Virginia
Lee assumed command of the Army of Northern Virginia, which he would lead for the rest of the war and lead to many victories. -
Richmond falls to the Union army
The Rebel capital of Richmond, Virginia, falls to the Union, the most significant sign that the Confederacy was nearing its final days. On the evening of April 2, the Confederate government fled the city with its army right behind. -
Battle of Antietam
The Maryland Campaign was Lee's first attempt to take the war North and it was McClellan's men that stopped him and gave the north another victory. -
Emancipation Proclamation is announced
The Emancipation Proclamation was a presidential proclamation issued by Abraham Lincoln. It changed the federal legal status of more than 3 million slaves in designated areas of the South labeling them as free. As soon as a slave escaped the control of the Confederate government, by running away or through advances of federal troops, the slave became legally free. -
Battle of Fredericksburg
This battle was one of the most one-sided battles of the war, with Union casualties more than three times as heavy as those suffered by the Confederates. -
Confederates surrender at Vicksburg
The Confederacy is torn in two when General John C. Pemberton surrenders to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Vicksburg, Mississippi. The Vicksburg campaign was one of the Union's most successful of the 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. -
Battle of Gettysburg
This battle was one of the bloodiest battles of the war and was the turning point for the Union Army although neither side won. -
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. -
Lincoln gives his Gettysburg address
It was the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania four and a half months after the Union armies defeated the Confederacy at the Battle of Gettysburg. -
Atlanta is captured
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. -
Abraham Lincoln defeats George McClellan to win re-election
Democrats nominated Union General George McClellan. Three days after the Democratic Party convention closed, the Union won an important military victory which added more support for Lincoln who at the time feared he might lose the election. -
Sherman begins his march to the sea
From November 15 until December 21, 1864, Union General William T. Sherman led some 60,000 soldiers on a 285-mile march from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia. The purpose of this “March to the Sea” was to frighten Georgia's civilian population into abandoning the Confederate cause. -
Congress passes the 13th Amendment
The Thirteenth Amendment (Amendment XIII) to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. -
Freedmen's bureau is created
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. -
Lincoln gives his second inaugural address
Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address was delivered 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. -
President Lincoln's Assasination
John Wilkes Booth assassinated Lincoln at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. -
John Wilkes Booth is killed
John Wilkes Booth is killed when Union soldiers track him down to a Virginia farm 12 days after he assassinated Lincoln. -
Battle of Shiloh
The overpowering Confederate attack drove the unprepared Union soldiers from their camps and threatened to overwhelm Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s entire Army of the Tennessee. Grant launched a counteroffensive along the entire line, overpowering the weakened Confederate forces.
