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Lincoln Elected as President
On November 6, 1860, Abe Lincoln was elected President. He won only 40% of the votes, but that was enough to handily beat his other three opponents. He was the first republican elected into office. His lack of voters would be an issue he'd have to overcome in the comig Civil War. -
The South Secedes
After Lincoln was elected, South Carolina was the first state to go. Within three months, there were seven states that had seceded. The seccesion was driven by southern planter class. They wanted to keep slavery for their plantations for the economies sake. -
The Confederacy Was Formed
The first seven states to form the Confederacy were; Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas. They formed together to preserve slavery, states' rights, and political liberty for whites. They would later be joined by four more states; Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. -
Fort Sumter Attacked
When Fort Sumter was attacked by the Confederacy, it marked the beginning of the Civil War. At 2:30pm, Major Robert Anderson(the Union) surrendered. They proceeded to evaacuate the very next day. -
First Manasses
This was the first major land battle of the armies in Virginia. On July 16, 1861, the untried Union army under Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell marched from Washington against the Confederate army, which was drawn up behind Bull Run beyond Centreville. -
Battle of Fort Donelson
The Battle of Fort Donelson was fought from February 11 to 16, 1862, in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. The Union capture of the Confederate fort near the Tennessee–Kentucky border opened the Cumberland River, an important avenue for the invasion of the South. -
The Battle of Shiloh
On the morning of April 6, 1862, 40,000 Confederate soldiers under the command of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston poured out of the nearby woods and struck a line of Union soldiers occupying ground near Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River. The overpowering Confederate offensive drove the unprepared Federal forces from their camps and threatened to overwhelm Ulysses S. Grant’s entire command. -
The Battle of New Orleans
Then the Union attacked New Orleans and captured it, it was a huge blow for the Confederacy. Southern military strategists had planned for a Union attack from the Mississippi, not from the Gulf of Mexico. So the confederacy had lost a huge city. -
Second Manasses
On August 29, Pope launched a series of assaults against Jackson’s position along an unfinished railroad grade. The attacks were repulsed with heavy casualties on both sides. -
Battle of Antietam
General Robert E. Lee and George McClellan faced off near Antietam creek in Sharpsburg, Maryland, in the the first battle of the American Civil War to be fought on northern soil. Though the result of the battle was inconclusive, itremains the bloodiest single day in American history, withmore than 22,000 casualties. -
Emancipation Proclamation
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." -
The Battle of Fredricksburg
When General Lee's Confederate Army of North Virginia faced the Union army of the Potomac, it was one of the largest and deadliest of the Civil War. It was one that the Confederacy had won. -
The Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania was the largest battle of the American Civil War as well as the largest battle ever fought in North America. It included over 160,000 men total, and 51,000 of them were wounded or died. The Union would prevail in this, the biggest battle of the Civil War. -
Grant Promoted to Lt. General
President Lincoln elevated Grant to the rank of lieutenant general, and named him general-in-chief of the Armies of the United States. Making his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac, Grant was determined to crush Robert E. Lee and his vaunted Army of Northern Virginia at any cost. -
General Lee Surrenders
At Appomattox, Virginia, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders his 28,000 troops to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, effectively ending the American Civil War. Forced to abandon the Confederate capital of Richmond, blocked from joining the surviving Confederate force in North Carolina, and harassed constantly by Union cavalry, Lee had no other option
