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Uncle Tom's Cabin published
An anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War" -
Dred Scott v.Stanford decision is rendered
The Dred Scott decision of 1857 put a match to the tinderbox of sectional conflict over the future of slavery and helped shape the subsequent presidential election. -
John Brown is hanged
21 of his followers attacked and occupied the federal arsenal in Harper's Ferry. Their goal was to capture supplies and use them to arm a slave rebellion. Brown was captured during the raid and later hanged, but not before becoming an anti-slavery icon. Abolitionist and insurrectionist. -
Lincoln elected president
On November 6, 1860, Lincoln was elected the 16th president of the United States -
South Carolina votes to secede from the United States
South Carolina would become the first state to secede during the Civil War.Following the election of President Abraham Lincoln in 1860, 11 Southern states seceded from the Union, leading to the Civil War -
Confederate forces fire at fort Sumter
Early in the morning of April 12, 1861, Confederate guns around the harbor opened fire on Fort Sumter. -
Richmond becomes the capital of the Confederacy
the Confederate Capital City of Montgomery, Alabama, the decision was made to name the City of Richmond, Virginia as the new Capital of the Confederacy. -
First battle of Bull Run is fought
ought on July 21, 1861 in Prince William County, Virginia, just north of the city of Manassas and about 25 miles west-southwest of Washington, D.C. -
Jefferson Davis elected president of the Confederacy
Jefferson Davis was elected president of the Confederates. He ran unopposed and was elected to serve for a six-year term. -
Robert E.Lee named the commander of the Army of North Virginia
Commanded the Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War from 1862 until his surrender in 1865. -
The Merrimac and the Monitor fight of the Virginia coast
The battle was naval engagement at Hampton Roads, Virginia. It was the first duel between ironclad warships and the beginning of a new era of naval warfare in the Civil War. -
The Merrimac and the Monitor fight of the Virginia coast
Naval engagement at Hampton Roads, Virginia, a harbor at the mouth of the James River, notable as history's first duel between ironclad warships and the beginning of a new era of naval warfare. -
Battle of Shiloh
A battle in the Western Theater of the American Civil War, fought April 6–7, 1862, in southwestern Tennessee. -
Battle at Antietam
was fought on September 17, 1862, between Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and Union General George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac, near Sharpsburg, Maryland -
Emancipation Proclamation announced
President Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation in the midst of the Civil War, announcing on September 22, 1862, that if the rebels did not end the fighting and rejoin the Union by January 1, 1863, all slaves in the rebellious states would be free. -
Battle at Fredricksburg
Fought December 11–15, 1862, in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia, between General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and the Union Army of the Potomac, commanded by Major General Ambrose Burnside, as part of the American Civil War. -
Battle of Chancellorville
The battle resulted in a Confederate victory that stopped an attempted flanking movement by Maj. Gen. Joseph "Fighting Joe" Hooker’s Army of the Potomac against the left of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. -
Battle at Gettysburg
Fought from July 1 to July 3, 1863, is considered the most important engagement of the American Civil War. After a great victory over Union forces at Chancellorsville, General Robert E. Lee marched his Army of Northern Virginia into Pennsylvania in late June 1863 -
Confederates surrender at Vicksburg
General John C. Pemberton surrenders to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Vicksburg, Mississippi. The Vicksburg campaign was one of the Union's most successful of the war. -
Confederates surrender at Vicksburg
General John C. Pemberton surrenders to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Vicksburg, Mississippi during the Civil War -
New York City draft riots
violent disturbances in Lower Manhattan, widely regarded as the culmination of working-class discontent with new laws passed by Congress that year to draft men to fight in the ongoing American Civil War -
Lincoln gives Gettysburg Address
Delivered on the battlefield near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. "Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal". -
Atlanta is captured
Union forces commanded by William Tecumseh Sherman overwhelmed and defeated Confederate forces defending the city under John Bell Hood. Union Maj. -
John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry
It was an attempt to initiate an armed slave revolt in 1859 by taking over a United States arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. -
lincoln defeats George McClellan for re-election
In the midst of the American Civil War, incumbent President Abraham Lincoln of the National Union Party defeated the Democratic nominee, former General George B. McClellan. -
Sherman begins his march to the sea
From November 15 until December 21, 1864, Union General William T. Sherman led some 60,000 soldiers on a 285-mile march from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia -
Congress passes the 13th Amendment
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. -
Freedman's Bureau is created
an agency of the United States Department of War to "direct such issues of provisions. -
Lincoln gives his second inaugural address
Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address was delivered on March 4, 1865, during the final days of the Civil War and only a month before he was assassinated. -
Richmond falls to the Union Army
The fall of Richmond was one of the last chapters written during the Civil War. By the end of 1864 the Civil War was drawing to a close. -
Robert E.Lee surrenders at Appomattox
At the Appomattox Court House, Virginia, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. -
Lincoln's assassination
Lincoln was assassinated by well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C -
John Wilkes Booth is killed
Union soldiers track him down to a Virginia farm 12 days after he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. Twenty-six-year-old Booth was one of the most famous actors in the country when he shot Lincoln during a performance at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., on the night of April 14.
