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John Brown, in an attempt to amass arms for a slave insurrection, attacks the federal armory and arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
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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, a special convention of the South Carolina legislature votes to secede from the Union.
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Star of the West, an unarmed merchant vessel secretly carrying federal troops and supplies to Fort Sumter, is fired upon by South Carolina artillery at the entrance to Charleston harbor.
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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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February
Delegates from six seceded states meet in Montgomery, Alabama, to form a government and elect Jefferson Davis President of the Confederate States of America. -
Fort Sumter is bombarded and surrenders to South Carolina troops led by P. G. T. Beauregard.
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Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina secede from the Union.
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Confederate forces win a victory at the First Battle of Manassas. Confederate General Thomas J. Jackson earns the nickname “Stonewall” for his tenacity in the battle.
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General Ulysses S. Grant captures Fort Henry, Tennessee. Ten days later he accepts the “unconditional and immediate surrender” of Fort Donelson. These victories open up the state of Tennessee for Union advancement.
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Stonewall Jackson’s Shenandoah Valley campaign begins successfully with a victory at the Battle of McDowell in Virginia.
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Lee forces McClellan’s army to retreat, ending the threat to Richmond in the Seven Days’ campaign.
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Confederate cavalry under Jeb Stuart clash with the Union mounts of Alfred Pleasonton in an all day battle at Brandy Station, Virginia. Some 18,000 troopers—approximately nine thousand on either side—take part, making this the largest cavalry battle on American soil. In the end, Stuart will hold the field. Yet this battle signals the rise and future domination of Union cavalry in the eastern theater.
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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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The South is again victorious at the Second Battle of Manassas.
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President Lincoln issues the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.
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General McClellan receives Lincoln’s order relieving him of command of the Army of the Potomac.
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Lee wins the Battle of Fredericksburg decisively.
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Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, which declares that slaves in the seceded states are now free.
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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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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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Lincoln is reelected President, with Andrew Johnson as Vice President.
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General George Henry Thomas wins the Battle of Nashville, decimating John Bell Hood's Confederate Army of Tennessee.
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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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Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia to Grant at Appomattox.
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John Wilkes Booth shoots President Lincoln at Ford’s Theater; Secretary of State William H. Seward is stabbed and wounded in an assassination attempt inside his Washington home. April 15
Lincoln dies, and Andrew Johnson is inaugurated as President. -
All eight conspirators are convicted for the assassination of President Lincoln; four are sentenced to death