Civil war soldiers

Civil War and Reconstruction

  • Mississippi Secedes from the Union

    Mississippi seceded after South Carolina who seceded in 1860. Seceded before Fort Sumter
  • Florida Secedes from the Union

    Seceded before Fort Sumter
  • Alabama Secedes from the Union

    Before Fort Sumter
  • Georgia Secedes from the Union

    Before Fort Sumter
  • Louisiana Secedes from the Union

    Before Fort Sumter
  • Texas Secedes from the Union

    Before Fort Sumter
  • Abraham Lincoln takes office

  • Confederate troops declare war by firing on Fort Sumter

    Carolinians opened fire on Fort Sumter after they saw the north bringing supplies to fort sumter as an act of aggrression.
  • Lincoln called for 75,000 militiamen

    Lincoln called for militiamen to fight in the war against the south, only thought they would serve for ninety days.
  • Virginia Secedes from the Union

  • Arkansas Secedes from the Union

  • North Carolina Secedes from the Union

  • Tennessee Secedes from the Union

  • Yankee troops "swaggered" out of Washington to Bull Run

    Victory was worse than defeat for the South because it raised their already dangerous over-confidence
  • The Battle of Wilson's Creek War

    The second major battle of the Civil War and first major battle fought west of the Mississippi River takes place, resulting in the first death of a General, Nathaniel Lyon.
  • Ironclad Monitor fights Merrimack to standstill

    The british and french had built ironclads before. after a few months after this battle the Merrimack was destroyed to be it from the grasp of advancing union troops.
  • Battle at Shiloh, just over the Tennessee border from Corinth

    Though Grant successfully
    counterattacked, the impressive Confederate
    showing, Shiloh confirmed that there would be
    no quick end to the war in the West.
  • Period: to

    Seven Days War

  • Second Battle of Bull Run

    Robert E. Lee beat General John Pope with a crushing defeat.
  • Battle at Antietam

    McCllelan succeeded at halting Lee in one of the bloodiest days of the war.
  • Lincoln enacts the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation

    Hoped that by January 1st, 1863 that lincoln would issue a final proclamation
  • Battle of Fredericksburg

    More than ten thousand Northern soldiers were
    killed or wounded in “Burnside’s Slaughter Pen.’’
  • Lincoln fulfills his promise with Emancipation Proclamation

    Lincoln stated that "The old South is to be destroyed and replaced by new proposition and ideas..."
  • Battle of Chancellorsville

    Lee sent "Stonewall" Jackson to attack the Union flank
  • Battle of Gettysburg

  • Battle at Vicksburg

    General Grant was now given command of the
    Union forces attacking Vicksburg and in the teeth of
    grave difficulties displayed rare skill and daring. The
    siege of Vicksburg was his best-fought campaign of
    the war.
  • The Wade-Davis Bill

    The Wade-Davis Bill positively affected the North yet negatively affected the South, This bill helped the North, because this made it harder for a southerner to become a citizen and the North opposed them becoming free. Also, one of the requirements to become a citizen said you had to ban slavery which supported the North's idea of abolition. The South didn't like this, because it prevented them from becoming a citizen quicker.
  • Grant orders frontal assault on Cold Harbor

    The Union soldiers advanced to
    almost certain death with papers pinned on their
    backs bearing their names and addresses. In a few
    minutes, about seven thousand men were killed or
    wounded.
  • The Ten Percent Plan

    The Ten Percent Plan was Lincoln's plan of reuniting the nation as quickly as possible. This was helpful to the South, because as long as they agreed slavery was illegal, and took an oath of loyalty, they would be freed. Only ten percent of the voters needed to take the pledges in a state to form a new government. The northerners did not like this plan, because they did not want the slaves to become free quickly.
  • Freedman's Bureau Created

    Created to cope with this problem throughout the conquered South, Congress
  • Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox

    Appomattox Courthouse was where the Confederate and Union leaders met to end the Civil War. Lee surrendered to Grant and was assured by Grant that he would take care of the soldiers. The North was happy that they had won the battle, but the South was very sad and depressed to think that they had been through all that fighting, just so they could lose.
  • Lincoln is shot by John Wilkes Booth

    A half-crazed, fanatically pro-Southern actor, John
    Wilkes Booth, slipped behind Lincoln as he sat in
    his box and shot him in the head. After lying unconscious
    all night, the Great Emancipator died the
    following morning.
  • "Andy" Johnson creates his Reconstruction Proclamation

    He agreed with Lincoln that the seceded states had never legally been outside the Union. Thus he quickly recognized several of Lincoln’s 10 percent governments,
  • First Day of Congressional Session

    While the South had been “out” from 1861 to 1865, the
    Republicans in Congress had enjoyed a relatively free
    hand. They had passed much legislation that favored
    the North, such as the Morrill Tariff, the Pacific Railroad
    Act, and the Homestead Act. Now many Republicans
    balked at giving up this political advantage. On the first day of the congressional session, they banged shut the door in the face of the newly elected Southern delegations.
  • Johnson announces that the Union in his opinion was restored

  • Tennessee is readmitted to representation in congress

  • Congress passes the Reconstruction Act

    This drastic legislation divided the South into five military districts, each commanded by a Union general and policed by blue-clad soldiers, about twenty thousand all told. The act also temporarily disfranchised tens of thousands of former Confederates.
  • First day of voting in the senate

    The tension was electric, and heavy breathing could be heard in the galleries. By a margin of only one vote, the radicals failed to muster the two-thirds majority for Johnson’s removal. Seven independent-minded Republican senators, courageously putting country above party, voted “not guilty.”
  • Arkansas is readmitted to representation in congress

  • North Carolina is readmitted to representation in congress

  • South Carolina is readmitted to representation in congress

  • Alabama is readmitted to representation in congress

  • Louisiana is readmitted to representation in congress

  • Florida is readmitted to representation in congress

  • Fourteenth Amendment Ratified

    Granted citizenship, due process and equal protection to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,”
  • "Black Friday"

    Fisk and Gould madly bid the price of gold skyward, while scores of honest businesspeople were driven to the wall. The bubble finally broke when the Treasury, contrary to Grant’s supposed assurances, was compelled to release gold. A congressional probe concluded that Grant had done nothing crooked, though he had acted stupidly and indiscreetly.
  • Virginia is readmitted to representation in congress

  • Fifteenth Amendment Ratified

    Granted African-American men the right to vote
  • Mississippi is readmitted to representation in congress

  • Texas is readmitted to representation in congress

  • Georgia is readmitted to representation in congress

    Readmitted June 25, 1868, but returned to military control after expulsion of blacks from legislature
  • Amnesty Act

    Grant signs the Amnesty Act, although the final legislation is less generous than he had wanted. Now only a few hundred former Confederates are excluded from political privileges.
  • Credit Mobilier Scandal

    The New York Sun charges that Vice President Schuyler Colfax, vice-presidential nominee Henry Wilson, James Garfield, and other prominent politicians are involved in the operations of the Crédit Mobilier, a corporation established by the promoters of the Union Pacific railroad to siphon off the profits of transcontinental railroad construction. Ultimately, two congressmen will be censured for their part in the swindle and many other politicians will be damaged in reputation.
  • Grant gets reelected

    Reelection of Ulysses S. Grant with a landslide victory. Grant invites black people to the inaugural ball for the first time in American history.
  • The Panic of !873 Begins

    The Panic of 1873 began on September 18 with the failure of the Philadelphia investment house of Jay Cooke.
  • Civil Rights Act of 1875 passed

    Guaranteed African Americans equal treatment in public accommodations, public transportation, and prohibited exclusion from jury service. The Supreme Court decided the act was unconstitutional in 1883.
  • Bruce Takes Seat

    The first African-American to serve a full term as senator, Blanche Kelso Bruce (Republican) of Mississippi takes his seat in the United States Senate. Not until 1969 would another black American begin a Senate term. He was only half black, his mother a slave, and his father a free white plantation owner. You have to wonder how great he had to be, to actually get that. (Or, if it was just a political move...)
  • Whiskey Ring Scandal

    The Whisky Ring scandal is exposed; a group of public officials and liquor distillers have defrauded the federal government of millions by bribing liquor tax collectors. Orville E. Babcock, Grant's private secretary, was involved in the scandal and only acquitted through the personal intervention of the president.
  • Jim Crow Laws

    EX: Education: No African American or racially mixed citizen would be allowed to attend any public education building aside from the one reserved for "colored persons."
  • The Compromise of 1877 was negotiated

    A purported informal, unwritten deal that settled the intensely disputed 1876 U.S. presidential election, pulled federal troops out of state politics in the South, and ended the Reconstruction Era.
  • Inaguration Day

    Clash or compromise was the stark choice. The danger
    loomed that there would be no president on
    Inauguration Day,“Tilden or Blood!”