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Abraham Lincoln is Elected as 16th U.S. President
Abraham Lincoln is elected the first Republican, receiving 180 of 303 possible electoral votes and 40 percent of the popular vote. -
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Civil War
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South Carolina secedes from the Union.
Followed within two months by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. -
The Confederate States of America is formed
Jefferson Davis, a West Point graduate and former U.S. Army officer, is elected as president. -
Robert E. Lee resigns commission in US Army
He goes to Richmond, Virginia, is offered command of the military and naval forces of Virginia, and accepts. -
Antietam
he bloodiest day in U.S. military history as Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Armies are stopped at Antietam in Maryland by McClellan and numerically superior Union forces. By nightfall 26,000 men are dead, wounded, or missing. Lee then withdraws to Virginia. -
Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation
Freeing slaves by President Lincoln. -
Final Emancipation Proclamation
Video on Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation 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. -
Period: to
Civil War
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President Lincoln meets with Frederick Douglass
The president meets with abolitionist Frederick Douglass who pushes for full equality for Union 'Negro troops.' -
Gettysburg Address
Gettysburg Address President Lincoln delivers a two minute Gettysburg Address at a ceremony dedicating the Battlefield as a National Cemetery.
