Civil War

Underground Railroad

1900 BCE

The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century enslaved people of African descent in the United States in efforts to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause.

Sherman's March

1865 BCE

Sherman's march to the sea definition. A movement of the Union army troops of General William Tecumseh Sherman from Atlanta, Georgia, to the Georgia seacoast, with the object of destroying Confederate supplies. The march began after Sherman captured, evacuated, and burned Atlanta in the fall of 1864.

Surrender At Appomattox Court House

1865 BCE

The Battle of Appomattox Court House, fought on the morning of April 9, 1865, was one of the last battles of the American Civil War. It was the final engagement of Confederate Army general Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia before it surrendered to the Union Army under Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.

Assassination Of Abraham Lincoln

1865 BCE

The Assassination of President Lincoln. April 14, 1865. Shortly after 10 p.m. on April 14, 1865, actor John Wilkes Booth entered the presidential box at Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C., and fatally shot President Abraham Lincoln.

Thirteenth Amendment

1864 BCE

The Thirteenth Amendment (Amendment XIII) to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. In Congress, it was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, and by the House on January 31, 1865.

Emancipation Proclamation

1863 BCE

The Emancipation Proclamation was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863.

Battle At Gettysburg

1863 BCE

Gettysburg, Battle of definition. The greatest battle of the Civil War, fought in south-central Pennsylvania in 1863. It ended in a major victory for the North and is usually considered the turning point of the war.

Battle At Vicksburg

1863 BCE

siege of Vicksburg - a decisive battle in the American Civil War (1863); after being besieged for nearly seven weeks the Confederates surrendered. Vicksburg. American Civil War, United States Civil War, War between the States - civil war in the United States between the North and the South; 1861-1865.

Gettysburg Address

1863 BCE

The Gettysburg Address is a speech delivered by Abraham Lincoln at the November 19, 1863, dedication of Soldier's National Cemetery, a cemetery for Union soldiers killed at the Battle Of Gettysburg during the American Civil War.

Battle At Antietam

1862 BCE

The Battle of Antietam was one of the most important events of the American Civil War. Fought on September 17, 1862, Antietam was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history with over 23,000 casualties (men listed as killed, wounded, or captured or missing) in roughly 12 hours.

Formation Of The Confederacy

1861 BCE

Formed in February 1861, the Confederate States of America was a republic composed of eleven Southern states that seceded from the Union in order to preserve slavery, states' rights, and political liberty for whites.

Attack On Fort Sumter

1861 BCE

Fort Sumter is an island fortification located in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. Originally constructed in 1829 as a coastal garrison, Fort Sumter is most famous for being the site of the first shots of the Civil War (1861-65).

Battle Of Bull Run

1861 BCE

Bull Run, Battle of definition. The first battle of the American Civil War, fought in Virginia near Washington, D.C. The surprising victory of the Confederate army humiliated the North and forced it to prepare for a long war. A year later the Confederacy won another victory near the same place.

Income Tax

1861 BCE

On this day in 1861, Lincoln imposes the first federal income tax by signing the Revenue Act. Strapped for cash with which to pursue the Civil War, Lincoln and Congress agreed to impose a 3 percent tax on annual incomes over $800.

Abraham Lincoln Becomes President

1860 BCE

On November 6, 1860, Lincoln was elected the 16th president of the United States, beating Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, John C. Breckinridge of the Southern Democrats, and John Bell of the new Constitutional Union Party. He was the first president from the Republican Party.

John Brown Raid/ Harpers Ferry

1859 BCE

John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry (also known as John Brown's raid or The raid on Harpers Ferry; in many books the town is called "Harper's Ferry") was an effort by white abolitionist John Brown to initiate an armed slave revolt in 1859 by taking over a United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.

Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas Debate

1858 BCE

The Lincoln–Douglas Debates of 1858 (also known as The Great Debates of 1858) were a series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate for the United States Senate from Illinois, and incumbent Senator Stephen Douglas, the Democratic Party candidate.

Dred Scott v. Sandford

1856 BCE

In Dred Scott v. Sandford (argued 1856 -- decided 1857), the Supreme Court ruled that Americans of African descent, whether free or slave, were not American citizens and could not sue in federal court. The Court also ruled that Congress lacked power to ban slavery in the U.S. territories.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

1854 BCE

The Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed by the U.S. Congress on May 30, 1854. It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. The Act served to repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which prohibited slavery north of latitude 36°30´.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

1852 BCE

Uncle Tom's Cabin definition. (1852) A novel, first published serially, by Harriet Beecher Stowe; it paints a grim picture of life under slavery. The title character is a pious, passive slave, who is eventually beaten to death by the overseer Simon Legree.

Fugitive Slave Act

1850 BCE

The Fugitive Slave Law or Fugitive Slave Act was passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave-holding interests and Northern Free-Soilers.

Compromise Of 1850

1850 BCE

The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850, which defused a four-year political confrontation between slave and free states regarding the status of territories acquired during the Mexican–American War (1846–1848).

Treaty Of Guadalupe Hidalgo

1848 BCE

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (Tratado de Guadalupe Hidalgo in Spanish), officially entitled the Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Limits and Settlement between the United States of America and the Mexican Republic, is the peace treaty signed on February 2, 1848, in the Villa de Guadalupe Hidalgo (now a neighborhood of ...

The North Star

1847 BCE

This Day In History: Frederick Douglass Starts Anti-Slavery Newspaper The North Star. On this day in 1847, freed slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass started a newspaper called The North Star.

Mexico-American War

1846 BCE

Mexican War definition. A war fought between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. The United States won the war, encouraged by the feelings of many Americans that the country was accomplishing its manifest destiny of expansion.

Manifest Destiny

1845 BCE

In the 19th century, manifest destiny was a widely held belief in the United States that its settlers were destined to expand across North America.

Texas Enters The United States

1845 BCE

Texas enters the Union on Dec. 29, 1845. On this day in 1845, six months after the Congress of the Republic of Texas voted for annexation by the United States, Texas was admitted into the Union as the 28th state.Dec 29, 2007

Texas Revolution

1835 BCE

The Texas Revolution (October 2, 1835 – April 21, 1836) began when colonists (primarily from the United States) in the Mexican province of Texas rebelled against the increasingly centralist Mexican government.

Nat Turner's Rebellion

1831 BCE

Nat Turner's Rebellion (also known as the Southampton Insurrection) was a slave rebellion that took place in Southampton County, Virginia, during August 1831. Led by Nat Turner, rebel slaves killed from 55 to 65 people, the highest number of fatalities caused by any slave uprising in the Southern United States.

The Liberator

1831 BCE

The Liberator (1831–1865) was an abolitionist newspaper founded by William Lloyd Garrison and Isaac Knapp in 1831. Garrison co-published weekly issues of The Liberator from Boston continuously for 35 years, from January 1, 1831, to the final issue of December 29, 1865.

Oregon Trail

1830 BCE

Oregon Trail definition. The route over which settlers traveled to Oregon in the 1840s and 1850s; trails branched off from it toward Utah and California. The Oregon Trail passed through what is now Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Idaho.

Mexico Abolish Slavery

1829 BCE

In 1829 the Guerrero decree conditionally abolished slavery throughout Mexican territories. It was a decision that increased tensions with slaveholders among the Anglo-Americans. After the Texas Revolution ended in 1836, the Constitution of the Republic of Texas made slavery legal.

San Felipe De Austin

1823 BCE

Also known as San Felipe de Austin, is a town in Austin County, Texas, United States. The town was the social, economic, and political center of the early Stephen F. Austin colony.

Santa Fe Trail

1822 BCE

The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century transportation route through central North America that connected Independence, Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1821 by William Becknell, it served as a vital commercial highway until the introduction of the railroad to Santa Fe in 1880.

Harriet Tubman

1822 BCE

Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross; c. 1822 – March 10, 1913) was an American abolitionist, humanitarian, and an armed scout and spy for the United States Army during the American Civil War.

Missouri Compromise

1820 BCE

The Missouri Compromise was a United States federal statute devised by Henry Clay. It regulated slavery in the country's western territories by prohibiting the practice in the former Louisiana Territory north of the parallel 36°30′ north, except within the boundaries of the proposed state of Missouri.

Abolition

1807 BCE

(The Slave Trade Act outlawed the slave trade in the British Empire in 1807 and the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 outlawed slavery all together.) With slaves escaping to New York and New England, legislation for gradual emancipation was passed in Upper Canada (1793) and Lower Canada (1803).

Conscription

1798 BCE

Meaning "enlistment of soldiers" is from 1520s; the sense "compulsory enlistment for military service" (1800) is traceable to the French Republic act of Sept. 5, 1798. Technically, a conscription is the enrollment of a fixed number by lot, with options of providing a substitute.

Stephen F. Austin

1793 BCE

the "Father of Texas" ... Stephen Fuller Austin (November 3, 1793 – December 27, 1836) was an American empresario born in Virginia and raised in southeastern Missouri.