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The Confederate States of America are formed
South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union. By February 1861 six other states from the lower south followed South Carolina. They were Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. -
Abraham Lincoln elected president (first term)
Lincoln did this by running as a republican canidate. This is said to be what pushed the south to secede from the Union. -
The attack on Fort Sumter
April 12-13th: The Battle of Fort Sumter was the bombardment and surrender of Fort Sumter, near Charleston, South Carolina, that started the American Civil War. Confederate victory. -
West Virginia becomes a state
West Virginia became a state following the Wheeling Conventions, breaking away from Virginia. The new state was admitted to the Union on June 20, 1863, and was a border state. -
The First Battle of Bull Run
First Battle of Bull Run, also known as First Man was fought in Prince William County, Virginia, near the city of Manassas. It was the first major land battle of the American Civil War. Confederate victory. -
The Battle of Shiloh
April 6-7th: The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, it was a major battle in the Western Theater of the War, fought in southwestern Tennessee. It was a Union victory. -
The Battle of Seven Pines (Fair Oaks)
May 31-June 1st: The Battle of Seven Pines, also known as the Battle of Fair Oaks, took place at in Henrico County, Virginia, as part of the Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War. It was the culmination of the offensive plan by Union Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, in which the Army of the Potomac reached the outskirts of Richmond. -
The Seven Days' Battle
June 25-July 1st: The Seven Days Battles was a series of six major battles near Richmond, Virginia. Confederate General Robert E. Lee drove the invading Union Army of the Potomac, commanded by Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, away from Richmond and into a retreat down the Virginia Peninsula. -
The Battle of Antietam
The Battle of Antietam was the single bloodiest day of battle in American military history. The Confederates lost nearly 11,000. The Union lost nearly 12,000. -
The Battle of Fredericksburg
December 11-15th: The Battle of Fredericksburg was fought around Fredericksburg, Virginia, between General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and the Union Army of the Potomac, commanded by Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside. Is remembered as one of the most one-sided battles of the American Civil War, -
The Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation was issued after the Battle of Antietam. This freed all of the slaves in the Confederacy. Though Lincoln waited for a victory so it didnt seem as a act of desperation. -
First (Union) Conscription Act
The Conscription Act was a military drafting system.The United States discontinued the draft in 1973, moving to an all-volunteer military force, thus there is no mandatory conscription. -
The Battle of Chancellorsville
April 30-May 6th: The Battle of Chancellorsville was a major battle, and the principal engagement of the Chancellorsville Campaign. It was fought in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, near the village of Chancellorsville. Two related battles were fought nearby on May 3 in the vicinity of Fredericksburg. -
The Siege of Vicksburg
May 18-July 4th: The Siege of Vicksburg was the final major military action in the Vicksburg Campaign. In a series of maneuvers, Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee crossed the Mississippi River and drove the Confederate army of Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton into the defensive lines surrounding the city of Vicksburg. -
The Battle of Gettysburg
July 1-13: The Battle of Gettysburg in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War, it is often described as the war's turning point. -
The Battle of Chickamauga
The Battle of Chickamauga marked the end of a Union offensive in southeastern Tennessee. The battle was the most significant Union defeat in the Western Theater of the American Civil War and involved the second highest number of casualties in the war following the Battle of Gettysburg. -
The Battle of Chattanooga
November 23-25th: Union Major General Ulysses S. Grant defeated Confederate General Braxton Bragg -
The Battle of Spotsylvania
May 8-21st: The Battle of Spotsylvania, was the second major battle in Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's 1864 Overland Campaign of the American Civil War. -
The Battle of Cold Harbor
May 31st- June 12th: Was one of the final battles of Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign during the American Civil War, and is remembered as one of American history's bloodiest, most lopsided battles. Thousands of Union soldiers were killed or wounded in a hopeless frontal assault against the fortified positions of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's army. -
Assassination of President Lincoln
President Lincoln was shot in the head at Ford's Theater. John Wilkes Booth killed him, as part of a larger conspiracy in a bid to revive the Confederate cause.
