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Fort Sumter
When Lincoln came into power there were two southern forts left under the Union. The Confederacy demanded that Lincoln surrender to face an attack. Lincoln had a problem: if he told his men to shoot into the harbor and reinforce Fort Sumter, he would be responsible for starting hostilities and the rest of the southern states would seceded, but if he ordered the fort evacuated, he would be treating the Confederacy as a legitimate nation. At the end, he decided to send in “food for hungry men.” Th -
Battle of Bull Run
It was the first major bloodshed. Experienced armies from both sides met near the Confederate capital. Neither side budged much. (Stonewall Jackson was in it) the Confederacy won but were too tired to attack Washington, so they retired, confident that they had won the war. -
Battle of New Orleans
New Orleans was the Confederacy’s largest city and busiest port, and they lost it. The Union gained this large city and continued victoriously to gain more victories. It helped the North because if the Union took all the major cities along the lower Mississippi, but then many Southern states would be cut off. -
Battle of Shiloh
Grant gathered troops near Shiloh church and attacked Union forces while they were still sleeping or making breakfast. It was a really bloody war and taught both sides that they needed to be prepared. Also, in this battle the Confederacy failed to hold onto its Ohio-Kentucky frontier, which showed that the Union’s three way strategy was succeeding. -
Proclamation of Emancipation
It was a proclamation by Lincoln that was more symbolic than usual. It stated that the slaves should be emancipated, but it only applied to the Confederate states, and since the Union had no authority there, it wasn’t acted on. It didn’t apply to the Southern states in the Union. It was a military action aimed at states in rebellion. -
Gettysburg
what was it: a three day battle at Gettysburg.
The loss of the South was so bad that General Lee wouldn’t have the right amount of forces to invade a Northern state. The South had been doing well up until then, but the North with its advanced weapons destroyed the South. The South had just been going to Gettysburg to get more supplies. -
Grant's Capture of Richmond
It was significant because this was the capital of the Confederacy, so it was the core of the South, and it had just been lost to the Confederacy, so it marked the ending of the war. The Confederates knew they were going to lose, so they fled their capital and set it aflame so that the Union didn’t get it. -
End of War
The war ended April 9, 1865 in a Virginia village called Appomattox Court House. -
Lincoln's Assassination
On April 14, 1865, five days after Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House, Lincoln and his wife went to see a British Comedy called “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theatre in Washington. During the third act of the play, a man came in through the unguarded doors to the presidential box, crept up behind Lincoln, and fired a pistol to the back of Lincoln’s head. John Wilkes Booth was a 26 year old Southern sympathizer. After the killing, he leaped to the state. But he landed hard and b
