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Presidential Election of 1860
Lincoln won this election -
South Carolina secedes from Union
South Carolina became the first slave state in the south to declare that it had seceded from the United States. -
Forming of Confederate States of America
Representatives from the six seceded states met in Montgomery, Alabama, to formally establish a unified government, which they named the Confederate States of America. -
Jefferson Davis appointed president of Confederacy
On February 9, Jefferson Davis of Mississippi was elected the Confederacy's first president. -
Lincoln’s first inaugural address
Part of his taking of the oath of office for his first term as the sixteenth President of the United States. -
Battle of Fort Sumter
The Battle of Fort Sumter was 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. -
(First) Battle of Bull Run (Manassas)
The First Battle of Bull Run, also known as the First Battle of Manassas, was fought on July 21, 1861 in Prince William County, Virginia, just north of the city of Manassas and about 25 miles west-southwest of Washington, D.C. -
First battle of ironclads
USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia. The Confederate fleet consisted of the ironclad ram Virginia (built from the remnants of the USS Merrimack) and several supporting vessels. -
Battle of Shiloh
a Union victory. With more than 23,000 casualties, Shiloh was the first battle of the Civil War that saw large-scale death and suffering. -
Siege of New Orleans by Union
Naval action by Union forces seeking to capture the city during the American Civil War. ... The permanent loss of New Orleans was considered one of the worst disasters suffered by the Confederacy in the western theatre of the war -
(Second) Battle of Bull Run
The Second Battle of Bull Run (Second Battle of Manassas) was fought August 28–30, 1862, during the American Civil War. It was much larger in scale and in the number of casualties than the First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas) fought in July 1861 on much of the same ground -
Battle of Antietam
Over 23,000 men fell as casualties in the 1-day Battle of Antietam, making it the bloodiest day in American history. The Union victory at Antietam resulted in President Abraham Lincoln issuing his Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862. -
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation granted freedom to the slaves in the Confederate States if the States did not return to the Union by January 1, 1863. In addition, under this proclamation, freedom would only come to the slaves if the Union won the war. -
Battle of Vicksburg (siege)
In May and June of 1863, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's armies converged on Vicksburg, investing the city and entrapping a Confederate army under Lt. Gen. John Pemberton. On July 4, Vicksburg surrendered after prolonged siege operations. -
Battle of Gettysburg
considered the most important engagement of the American Civil War. After a great victory over Union forces at Chancellorsville, General Robert E. Lee marched his Army of Northern Virginia into Pennsylvania in late June 1863. -
Draft Riots begin in New York City
known at the time as Draft Week, were violent disturbances in Lower Manhattan, widely regarded as the culmination of working-class discontent with new laws passed by Congress that year to draft men to fight in the ongoing American Civil War. -
54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry in combat
The 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment that saw extensive service in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The unit was the first African-American regiment organized in the northern states during the Civil War. -
Sacking of Lawrence, Kansas by Confederates
The Lawrence massacre was an attack during the American Civil War by the Quantrill's Raiders, a Confederate guerilla group led by William Quantrill, on the Unionist town of Lawrence, Kansas. -
Gettysburg Address
President Abraham Lincoln delivered a short speech at the end of the ceremonies dedicating the battlefield cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. That speech has come to be known as the Gettysburg Address -
First Successful Submarine Attack of the Civil War
hand-cranked Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley torpedoed the mighty USS Housatonic in Charleston Harbor on February 17, 1864 -
Battle of the wilderness Virginia
was the first battle of Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's 1864 Virginia Overland Campaign against Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia -
Fall of Atlanta, Georgia
Union forces commanded by William T. Sherman, wanting to neutralize the important rail and supply hub, defeated Confederate forces defending the city under John B. Hood. -
Lincoln wins a second term
Lincoln won this election -
Sherman's Army of Georgia arrives at Savannah, Georgia
Military campaign of the American Civil War conducted through Georgia from November 15 until December 21, 1864 -
Assault and capture of Fort Fisher, North Carolina
Fort Fisher was a Confederate fort during the American Civil War. It protected the vital trading routes of the port at Wilmington, North Carolina, from 1861 until its capture by the Union in 1865. -
Lincoln’s 2nd inaugural address
Lincoln's second inaugural address was during the final days of the Civil War and only a month before he was assassinated. -
Sherman’s troops occupy Fayetteville, NC
Sherman went through the Carolina's to get to the confederate capital in Virginia, Fayetteville was one of the towns they captured on the way. -
Battle of Appomattox Courthouse (Lee surrenders)
Near the town of Appomattox Court House, Virginia, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. The resulting Battle of Appomattox Court House, which lasted only a few hours, brought the four-year Civil War to an end. -
Lincoln assassinated
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, was assassinated by well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865, while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.
