-
-
Jefferson Davis comes out in favor of secession for the first time
-
Republican Convention is held in Chicago, Illinois
-
Joseph E. Johnston appointed Quartermaster General
-
Abraham Lincoln is elected as the first republican president, winning 40% of the popular vote.
-
Major Robert Anderson reports Fort Sumter is being threatened in Charleston as federal forces begin to improved Fort Moultrie and Fort Sumter in the harbor.
-
Georgia calls for a convention of Southern states to form an independent nation.
-
Governor Francis W. Pickens takes office
-
South Carolina secedes from the Union
-
South Carolina representatives withdraw from the U. S. House
-
Federal arsenal at Charleston falls into the hands of the Rebels
-
The Confederate States of America is formed with Jefferson Davis, a West Point graduate, as president.
-
Abraham Lincoln is sworn in as the 16th president.
-
The south attacks the northern Fort Sumter. No Northern soldiers are killed.
-
Lincoln calls for 75,000 troops.
-
Virginia secedes from union
-
Robert E. Lee resigns from the US army
-
Congress agrees for a call of 500,000 men.
-
The first battle of bull run happens.
-
President Lincoln appoints George B. McClellan as Commander of the Department of the Potomac, replacing McDowell.
-
President Lincoln revokes Gen. John C. Frémont's unauthorized military proclamation of emancipation in Missouri. Later, the president relieves Gen. Frémont of his command and replaces him with Gen. David Hunter.
-
President Lincoln issues General War Order No. 1 calling for all United States naval and land forces to begin a general advance by February 22, George Washington's birthday.
-
Victory for Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in Tennessee, capturing Fort Henry, and ten days later Fort Donelson. Grant earns the nickname "Unconditional Surrender" Grant.
-
President Lincoln is struck with grief as his beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, dies from fever, probably caused by polluted drinking water in the White House.
-
Confederate surprise attack on Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's unprepared troops at Shiloh on the Tennessee River results in a bitter struggle with 13,000 Union killed and wounded and 10,000 Confederates, more men than in all previous American wars combined.
-
Gen. Robert E. Lee assumes command, replacing the wounded Johnston. Lee then renames his force the Army of Northern Virginia.
-
The Seven Days Battles as Lee attacks McClellan near Richmond, resulting in very heavy losses for both armies. McClellan then begins a withdrawal back toward Washington
-
Lee invades the North with 50,000 Confederates
-
Bloodiest single day in the Civil War
-
Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves issued by President Lincoln.
-
President Lincoln delivers a two minute Gettysburg Address at a ceremony dedicating the Battlefield as a National Cemetery.
-
Army of the Potomac under Gen. Burnside suffers a costly defeat at Fredericksburg in Virginia with a loss of 12,653 men after 14 frontal assaults on well entrenched Rebels on Marye's Heights.
-
President Lincoln issues the final Emancipation Proclamation freeing all slaves in territories held by Confederates and emphasizes the enlisting of black soldiers in the Union Army. The war to preserve the Union now becomes a revolutionary struggle for the abolition of slavery.
-
Gen. Grant is placed in command of the Army of the West, with orders to capture Vicksburg.
-
The U.S. Congress enacts a draft, affecting male citizens aged 20 to 45, but also exempts those who pay $300 or provide a substitute.
-
The South suffers a huge blow as Stonewall Jackson dies from his wounds
-
The tide of war turns against the South as the Confederates are defeated at the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania.
-
Vicksburg, the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River, surrenders to Gen. Grant and the Army of the West after a six week siege.
-
Anti-draft riots in New York City include arson and the murder of blacks by poor immigrant whites. At least 120 persons, including children, are killed and $2 million in damage caused, until Union soldiers returning from Gettysburg restore order.
-
Negro troops' of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment under Col. Robert G. Shaw assault fortified Rebels at Fort Wagner, South Carolina. Col. Shaw and half of the 600 men in the regiment are killed.
-
The president meets with abolitionist Frederick Douglass who pushes for full equality for Union 'Negro troops.
-
President Lincoln appoints Gen. Grant to command all of the armies of the United States. Gen. William T. Sherman succeeds Grant as commander in the west.
-
A costly mistake by Grant results in 7,000 Union casualties in twenty minutes during an offensive against fortified Rebels at Cold Harbor in Virginia
-
Union forces miss an opportunity to capture Petersburg and cut off the Confederate rail lines. As a result, a nine month siege of Petersburg begins with Grant's forces surrounding Lee.
-
At Atlanta, Sherman's forces battle the Rebels now under the command of Gen. John B. Hood, who replaced Johnston.
-
Democrats nominate George B. McClellan for president to run against Republican incumbent Abraham Lincoln.
-
Atlanta is captured by Sherman's Army
-
Abraham Lincoln is re-elected president, defeating Democrat George B. McClellan
-
Sherman, with 62,000 men begins a March to the Sea.
-
Hood's Rebel Army of 23,000 is crushed at Nashville by 55,000 Federals including Negro troops under Gen. George H. Thomas
-
Sherman reaches Savannah in Georgia leaving behind a 300 mile long path of destruction 60 miles wide all the way from Atlanta. Sherman then telegraphs Lincoln, offering him Savannah as a Christmas present.
-
The U.S. Congress approves the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, to abolish slavery. The amendment is then submitted to the states for ratification.
-
The last offensive for Lee's Army of Northern Virginia begins with an attack on the center of Grant's forces at Petersburg
-
Grant's forces begin a general advance and break through Lee's lines at Petersburg. Confederate Gen. Ambrose P. Hill is killed. Lee evacuates Petersburg. The Confederate Capital, Richmond, is evacuated
-
President Lincoln tours Richmond where he enters the Confederate White House.President Lincoln tours Richmond where he enters the Confederate White House.
-
Gen. Robert E. Lee surrenders his Confederate Army to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at the village of Appomattox Court House in Virginia.
-
Celebrations break out in Washington.
-
Lincoln and his wife Mary see the play "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater. At 10:13 p.m., during the third act of the play, John Wilkes Booth shoots the president in the head
-
President Abraham Lincoln dies at 7:22 in the morning. Vice President Andrew Johnson assumes the presidency.
-
John Wilkes Booth is shot and killed in a tobacco barn in Virginia.
-
Abraham Lincoln is laid to rest in Oak Ridge Cemetery, outside Springfield, Illinois.
-
The first formal observation of President Lincoln's birthday is held in Washington, D. C. President
-
Texas repeals the actions of the Secessionist Convention
-
President Johnson vetos the Civil Rights Act of 1866 on the grounds that it was unconstitutional
-
Congress appropriates $100,000 to buy Ford's Theater. It will house the Army Medical Museum, the Office of the Surgeon General and War Department records until 1893
-
Congress overrides President Andrew Johnson's veto of the Civil Rights Act
-
Thirty-ninth Congress approves the 14th Amendment to the Constitution
-
Congress overrides Andrew Johnson's veto of the Freedman's Bureau bill
-
Congress creates the rank of Admiral. David Farragut is appointed to that rank
-
The U. S. Secret Service begins an investigation into the Ku Klux Klan
-
New Jersey ratifies the 14th Amendment
-
Blacks in Washington D. C. gain the right to vote in a bill passed over President Andrew Johnson's veto
-
Nebraska becomes a state
-
Federal army restores military rule to Mississippi
-
Alexandria, Virginia rejects thousand of votes cast by Negroes, who were granted universal suffrage under the Reconstruction Act.
-
Massachusetts ratifies the 14th Amendment
-
Congress passes the 2nd Reconstruction Act over Andrew Johnson's veto
-
Congress passes a bill admitting Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, and South Carolina into the Union.
-
House Select Committee on Reconstruction is appointed
-
Ulysses S. Grant becomes ad interim Secretary of War
-
Edwin Stanton suspended by President Andrew Johnson
-
Edwin Stanton is illegally restored to Secretary of War by the U. S. Senate
-
Mississippi rejects the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
-
President Andrew Johnson removes Edwin Stanton from office and informs the Senate of his actions
-
The U. S. House votes to impeach President Andrew Johnson,
-
Iowa ratifies the 14th Amendment
-
Arkansas ratifies the 14th Amendment
-
The Senate votes 35 guilty, 19 not guilty in the impeachment of Andrew Johnson.
-
Republican Convention nominates Ulysses S. Grant to run for President of the United States and Schuyler Colfax as Vice-president
-
James Buchanan dies
-
Florida ratifies the 14th Amendment
