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Election of 1860
This is the first Election in which Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States. The second would be in 1864. Lincoln ran against John C. Breckinridge in this election.
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Secession of South Carolina
South Carolina was the first state to secede form the Union, in 1860. Other southern states would soon follow it, the last being Tennessee on june 8, 1861.
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Battle of Fort Sumter
The Battle of Fort Sumter is frequently considered to be the start of the Civil War. An unarmed Union merchant ship was fired upon by the South, and the Union ultimately had to evacuate the fort.
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First Battle of Bull Run
Considered the first major battle of the Civil War. This battle was started as an attempt to bring an early end to the rebellion. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson earned his nickname here.
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Battle of Hampton Roads
Arguably the most important naval battle of the Civil War. This battle saw the first meeting of two ironclad warships, the CSS Virginia and the USS Monitor.
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Creation of the Department of Agriculture
Abraham Lincoln Created the Department of Agriculture and called it the "people's department." Its first commissioner was Isaac Newton. It would later become a cabinet department in 1889, under Grover Cleveland.
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Homestead Act
The Homestead Acts were acts that granted applicants land at litlte or no cost. The first of the Homestead Acts, the Homestead Act, stated that anyone who had raised arms against the United States could apply for land. Several other Acts would later be passed, including the Southern Homestead Act of 1866, which would attempt to aid in reconstruction and end the cycle of sharecropping and debt in the South.
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Pacific Railway Act
The Pacific Railway Act of 1862 gave huge land grants and government bonds to the Union Pacific Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad to build a railroad to the Pacific Ocean and connect the two halves of the United States. Another act would later be passed in 1863 that set the guage of the track.
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Morrill Land-Grant Act
The Morrill Land-Grant Acts were a series of acts, the first of which pased in 1862, that allowed for the creation of land-grant colleges. These were colleges that could be granted land and focused on agricultural and mechanical sciences, as opposed to liberal arts.
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Battle of Antietam
The Battle of Antietam was the first major battle to take place on Union soil. It is most known for being the bloodiest single-day battle in American History, with 22,717 casualties.
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Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation was a historic document issued by Abraham Lincol that changed the legal status of almost all slaves to free. This meant that, should they reach the north, they would be freed. It did not outlaw slavery, but it did make the ending of slavery an explicit war goal.
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Photography in the Civil war
The Civil War was the fifth war to be photographed, and is considered to be the most well-documented of the 19th century. The photos of life on the battlefield had a powerful effect on civilians as it allowed them to see what some aspects of war may be like. The Civil War had photographers such as Matthew Brady, who is considered to be the father of photojournalism. (The shown photo is of Confederate dead in Chancellorsville, and was taken on the date of this event.)
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Battle of Vicksburg
The Battle of Vickburg would complete the Anaconda Plan of the North: the plan to blockade the South and divide it in two at the Mississippi River. Vicksburg was the last major Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi, and caputuring it completed the Plan.
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Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg is often considered to be the turning point in the war. It marked the end of Lee's attempts to invade the North, Lincoln would later deliver the famous Gettysburg Address in memorial of the soliders who fought in this battle.
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Battle of Atlanta
In this battle, William T. Sherman's forces took control of Atalanta. This was important because Atlanta was a major rail and supply center for the south, and this would cripple the southern infrastructure.
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Creation of the Freedmen's Bureau
The Freedmen's Bureau was a government agency established after the Civil War to aid freed slaves during Reconstruction. It would do things such as teach blacks how to read and write, urged freed blacks to pursue employment, and pushed whites and blacks to work together as employers and employees, rather than as masters and slaves. Some people were not in support of the creation of the bureau. Pictured is a poster that is attacking it.
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Battle of Appomattox Court House
Considered the last major battle of the Civil War. Final engagement between Lee and Grant, this is the battle that led Lee to surrender
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13th Amendment
The 13th amendment was a constitutional amendment that outlawed slavery in the United States. The final state to ratify the amendment and make it a legal part of the United States Constitution was Georgia, on December 6, 1865.
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Civil Rights Act of 1866
The Civil Rights act of 1866 was the first law to define United States citizenship and reaffirm all citizens that they are protected under the law. When it was originally passed in 1865 by Congress, president Johnson vetoed it. It was again passed in 1866, but vetoed by Johnson for a second time. However, by a two-thirds majority in both houses, Congress overcame the veto, and the bill was passed. The image is a painting of the passing of the bill.
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14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution built off of the Civil Rights act of 1866. It, again, defined citizenship in the United States and how it is obtained. It also stated that all citizens were equally protected under the law. Its first section has been cited in landmark cases such as Roe v. Wade and Bush v. Gore. The Southern states were required to ratify it in order to regain representation in Congress following the Civil War.
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15th Amendment
The 15th Amendment was the third constitutional amendment passed during reconstruction. It granted citizens the right to vote, stating that state or federal governments cannot deny that right based on their "race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
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Presidential Election of 1876
The Presidential Election of 1876 is considered to be one of the most controversial presidential elections. Although Tilden had the popular vote, he lost to Hayes due to the Compromise of 1877, which ended Reconstruction.
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Compromise of 1877
The Compromise of 1877 marked the end of the Reconstruction Era. It was an unwritten deal between the two candidates in the 1876 presidential election. Rutherford B. Hayes would win the election over the Democratic candidate, Samuel J. Tilden, on the understanding that Hayes would remove troops from South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana, whose Republican governments relied on support from said troops.
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Plessy v. Ferguson
The landmark case of Plessy v. Ferguson upheld the constitutionality of states having segretation laws under the doctrine of "sepearate but equal." It supported Jim Crow Laws.
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