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Constitution is drafted
The new Constitution of the United States has compromises to protect slavery. Each slave is counted as 3/5ths of a person. -
Missouri Compromise
Missouri joins the Union as a slave state in exchange for Maine to join as a free state to balance amount of free and slave states. -
Bleeding Kansas
Border wars broke out in Kansas, which could not decide if it should be a slave or free state. -
Abraham Lincoln is elected president
Receiving 180 of 303 possible electoral votes and 40 percent of the popular vote, Abraham Lincoln becomes president. -
Secessions take place
South Carolina secedes from the Union, followed by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. -
The Confederate States of America is formed
Following secessions from southern states, a new country is formed with Jefferson Davis, a West Point graduate and former U.S. Army officer, as president. -
Fort Sumter is attacked
At 4:30 a.m. the Confederate Army attacks Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. -
Border states secede
Virginia secedes from the Union, followed shortly afterwards by Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. -
Robert E. Lee becomes commander in Confederate army
After turning down an offer by the Union, Robert E. Lee instead fights for his homeland, Virginia, which later joins the Confederacy. -
First Battle of Bull Run
Confederate victory: McDowell loses to J.E. Johnston. -
First Battle of Lexington
Confederate victory, Union forced to retreat North -
Battle of Shiloh
Union victory in Tennessee. -
New Orleans is captured
After months of siege, New Orleans, the largest city in the South, is taken by Union troops. -
Second Battle of Bull Run
Confederate victory: Lee defeats Pope's Army of Virginia -
Confederacy is dissolved
Robert E. Lee surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant at the village of Appomattox Court House in Virginia. The Confederacy ends and former states slowly rejoin the Union.
