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Jefferson Davis speaks for Slavery
Mexican War hero, U.S. senator from Mississippi, U.S. secretary of war and president of the Confederate States of America for the duration of the American Civil War. Prior to the start of the war, Davis had argued against secession, but when Mississippi seceded he resigned from the U.S. Senate. -
Cooper Union Address
delivered by Abraham Lincoln on February 27, 1860, at Cooper Union, in New York City. Lincoln was not yet the Republican nominee for the presidency, as the convention was scheduled for May. -
The Pony Express
mail service delivering messages, newspapers, and mail using relays of horse-mounted riders that operated from April 3, 1860, to October 1861 between Missouri and California in the United States of America. -
Constitutional Union Party Forms
United States third party active during the 1860 elections. The American Party collapsed following the 1856 elections, and in the lead-up to the 1860 elections John J. Crittenden and other former Whigs founded the Constitutional Union Party. -
Grace Bedell writes to Lincoln
few weeks before Lincoln was elected President of the United States, Grace Bedell sent him a letter from Westfield, New York, urging him to grow a beard to improve his appearance. -
Abraham Lincoln Elected President
Abraham Lincoln was from the northern part of the country and wanted to put an end to slavery. The southern states didn't want him president or making laws that would affect them. -
Southey Secession is Urged
North Carolina made the most calamitous decision in its history. Following the states of the Deep South, the Tar Heel state seceded from the Union and joined the war for Southern independence. -
South Carolina Secedes
South Carolina became the first state to secede, or leave, the United States. They decided to make their own country rather than be part of the USA. Within a few months several other states including Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana would also leave the Union. -
South Carolina
When the ordinance was adopted on December 20, 1860, South Carolina became the first slave state in the south to declare that it had seceded from the United States. Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina -
South Carolina Congressmen
These elections spanned the Presidential election of 1860, won by Abraham Lincoln. Building on their successes in 1858, Republican candidates won increasing percentages in the House. -
Kansas became a state
Two years later, on January 29, 1861, Kansas joined the Union as the 34th state. Being a non-slavery state, Kansas was a part of the Union during the Civil War. Many thousands of men from Kansas went to fight with the Union army. -
McClellan ignores Lincoln
President Abraham Lincoln pays a late night visit to General George McClellan, who Lincoln had recently named general in chief of the Union army. The general retired to his chambers before speaking with the president -
Jefferson Davis
an American politician who served as the only President of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He was appointed as the United States Secretary of War, serving from 1853 to 1857, under President Franklin Pierce. -
Fort Sumter
the bombardment of Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina by the Confederate States Army, and the return gunfire and subsequent surrender by the United States Army, that started the American Civil War. -
Lincoln's Suspension
When Congress was called into special session, July 4, 1861, President Lincoln issued a message to both houses defending his various actions, including the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, arguing that it was both necessary and constitutional for him to have suspended it without Congress. -
Crittenden Johnson Resolution
was a measure passed almost unanimously by the 37th United States Congress on July 25, 1861. -
Capture of the Tennessee River
General Ulysses S. Grant finishes a spectacular campaign by capturing Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River in Tennessee. -
Lincoln appoints McClellan
was an American soldier, civil engineer, railroad executive, and politician. A graduate of West Point, McClellan served with distinction during the Mexican–American War -
USS San Jacinto
a Ticonderoga-class cruiser in the United States Navy. She is named for the Battle of San Jacinto, the decisive battle of the Texas Revolution. -
Judah Benjamin
a lawyer and politician who was a United States Senator from Louisiana, a Cabinet officer of the Confederate States and, after his escape to the United Kingdom at the end of the American Civil War, an English barrister. -
Kentucky and the Confederacy
officially declared its neutrality at the beginning of the war, but after a failed attempt by Confederate General Leonidas Polk to take the state of Kentucky for the Confederacy, the legislature petitioned the Union Army for assistance. -
Greenbacks
paper currency issued by the United States during the American Civil War. -
Battle of Shiloh
a battle in the Western Theater of the American Civil War, fought April 6–7, 1862, in southwestern Tennessee. -
Conscription
was legislation passed by the United States Congress during the American Civil War to provide fresh manpower for the Union Army. -
Internal Revenue Law
The United States Code was first published in 1926 by the U.S. House of Representatives. Title 26 covers all relevant rules pertaining to income, gift, estate, sales, payroll, and excise taxes -
Alice in Wonderland
Oxford mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson sends a handwritten manuscript called Alice’s Adventures Under Ground to 10-year-old Alice Liddell. -
African Americans and the Army
African-Americans as slaves and free blacks served on both sides during the war. Gary Nash reports that recent research concludes there were about 9,000 black Patriot soldiers. -
Antietam
also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg, particularly in the Southern United States, was a battle of the American Civil War, fought on September 17, 1862, -
Emancipation
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. -
Grant Against the Jewish
Jonathan Sarna argues that as president Grant became one of the greatest friends of Jews in American history. -
Lincoln hangs Indians
Abraham Lincoln received a telegram from General John Pope seeking his approval for the execution of 303 Dakota Indians. -
Emancipation Proclamation
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." -
National Banking Act
The National Bank Act of 1863 was designed to create a national banking system, float federal war loans, and establish a national currency. -
Conscription Act
During the Civil War, the U.S. Congress passes a conscription act that produces the first wartime draft of U.S. citizens in American history. -
Battle of Chancellorsville
The Battle of Chancellorsville was a major battle of the American Civil War, and the principal engagement of the Chancellorsville Campaign. -
Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. -
Lee Resigns
Scott served the United States in the war of 1812 and in the Mexican-American war, at the beginning of the Civil War. -
Battle of Lawrence
The Lawrence massacre was an attack during the American Civil War -
Thanksgiving
On this day in 1863, expressing gratitude for a pivotal Union Army victory at Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln announces that the nation will celebrate an official Thanksgiving. -
The Gettysburg Address
The Gettysburg Address is a speech that U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivered during the American Civil War at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg -
The Great Escape
Just one day before the clash of Union and Confederate soldiers at Gettysburg. We’re Union soldiers who managed to sneak into the quarters of a Confederate general while he’s away. -
Andersonville
it was known officially, held more prisoners at any given time than any of the other Confederate military prisons. It was built in early 1864 -
The Coinage Act
The Coinage Act or the Mint Act, passed by the United States Congress on April 2, 1792, created the United States dollar as the country's standard unit of money, established the United States Mint -
Conscription Hoax
New York Journal of Commerce, published a story that President Abraham Lincoln had issued a proclamation of conscription of 400,000 more men into the Union army. -
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery is a United States military cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. -
Lincoln's Conscription Law
the President Lincoln signed a new conscription act known as the Civil War Military Draft Act. -
Confederate Spy
Tactical or battlefield intelligence became very vital to both armies in the field during the American Civil War. -
Gold
New Yorkers were growing hopeful that the long, terrible ordeal of the Civil War would soon be over. -
Lincoln's Re- election
The 1864 election was the first time since 1812 that a presidential election took place during a war. For much of 1864, Lincoln himself believed he had little chance of being re-elected. -
Burning New York
The Confederate Army of Manhattan was a group of eight Southern operatives who attempted to burn New York City on or after Election Day -
Sherman's March to the Sea
Sherman's March to the Sea was a military campaign of the American Civil War -
Booth is captured
Booth was about to take on the part of Hamlet in October 1860 when he accidentally shot himself in the thigh with a pistol. -
Fort Stedman
The Battle of Fort Stedman, also known as the Battle of Hare's Hill, was fought on March 25, 1865, during the final weeks of the American Civil War. -
Richmond
Richmond, Virginia, served as the capital of the Confederate States of America for almost the whole of the American Civil War. -
Appomattox
The Battle of Appomattox Court House, fought on the morning of April 9, 1865, was one of the last battles of the American Civil War -
John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth was an American actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. -
Juneteenth
Juneteenth, also known as Juneteenth Independence Day or Freedom Day, is an American holiday -
Conspirators hanged
Their deaths were a culmination of sorts of a nation ravaged by war, bitter conflict, and the death of the nation’s commander-in-chief, Abraham Lincoln. -
Henry Wirz
Heinrich Hartmann Wirz, better known as Henry Wirz, was a Swiss-American officer of the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. -
13th Amendment
The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. -
KKK
The Ku Klux Klan, commonly called the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist hate group. -
The Liberator
The Liberator was an American abolitionist newspaper founded by William Lloyd Garrison and Isaac Knapp -
Jesse James
Jesse Woodson James was an American outlaw, bank and train robber, guerrilla, and leader of the James–Younger Gang. -
ASPCA
The ASPCA was founded in New York City in 1866 to prevent cruelty to animals in the United States. The ASPCA has been headquartered in New York City -
Nickel
The Shield nickel was the first United States five-cent piece to be made out of copper-nickel, the same alloy of which American nickels are struck today -
14th Amendment
The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments. -
Tennessee
The racial violence was ignited by political, social, and racial tensions following the American Civil War, in the early stages of Reconstruction -
General of the Army
five-star general officer and the second highest possible rank in the United States Army. -
Atlantic Cable
A transatlantic telegraph cable is an undersea cable running under the Atlantic Ocean used for telegraph communications. -
Train Robbery
Train robbery is a type of robbery, in which the goal is to steal money or other valuables being carried aboard trains. -
Jesse and gang
gang of American outlaws that centered around Jesse James and his brother Frank James. The gang was based in the state of Missouri, the home of most of the members. -
African American Males given right to vote
The 15th Amendment, granting African-American men the right to vote, was adopted into the U.S. Constitution in 1870. -
First Reconstruction Act
U.S. legislation enacted in 1867–68 that outlined the conditions under which the Southern states would be readmitted to the Union following the American Civil War -
Jesse James in Savannah
With 12 members, the James-Younger Gang made off with $4,000 from the Hughes and Wasson Bank of Richmond, Missouri. Three men were shot and killed. -
Ride ins
after the end of the Freedmen’s meeting in Charleston, South Carolina, a group of African-Americans decided to test their right to ride on the Charleston Street Cars. -
Alaska
The Alaska Purchase was the United States' acquisition of Alaska from the Russian Empire. -
Third Reconstruction Act
President Andrew Johnson attempted to veto all three acts, but each time Congress passed the act despite these objections. -
Johnson suspends Stanton
"On the 12th of August last I suspended Mr. Stanton from the exercise of the office of Secretary of War, and on the same day designated General Grant to act as Secretary of War ad interim." -
Alaska is formerly acquired
United States' acquisition of Alaska from the Russian Empire. Alaska was formally transferred to the United States on October 18, 1867, through a treaty ratified by the United States Senate and signed by President Andrew Johnson -
Impeachment
For the first time in history, the United States House of Representatives impeached a sitting president, Democrat Andrew Johnson. Now, Johnson faced trial before the U. S. Senate. -
Grange
officially named The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, is a fraternal organization in the United States -
Civil War
Jan 1, 1860 to Dec 31, 1867
