Civil War

Manifest Destiny

1900 BCE

The 19th-century doctrine or belief that the expansion of the US throughout the American continents was both justified and inevitable.

Abolition

1900 BCE

The movement to abolish slavery, became the most important of a series of reform movements in America.

Underground Railroad

1900 BCE

The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century enslaved people of African descent in the United States in efforts to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause.

Harriet Tubman

1900 BCE

Harriet Tubman was an American abolitionist, humanitarian, and an armed scout and spy for the United States Army during the American Civil War.

Surrender at Appomattox Court House

1865 BCE

On April 9, 1865, in a Virginia town called Appomattox Court House, Lee and Grant met at a private home to arrange a Confederate surrender. At Lincoln’s request, the terms were generous. Grant paroled Lee’s soldiers and sent them home with their possessions and three days’ worth of rations. Officers were permitted to keep their sidearms. Within a month all remaining Confederate resistance collapsed. After four long years, the Civil War was over.

Thirteenth Amendment

1865 BCE

The Thirteenth Amendment (Amendment XIII) to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. In Congress, it was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, and by the House on January 31, 1865.

Shermans March

1864 BCE

Sherman's March to the Sea is the name commonly given to the military Savannah Campaign in the American Civil War, conducted through Georgia from November 15 until December 21, 1864, Union General William T. Sherman led some 60,000 soldiers on a 285-mile march from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia. The purpose of this “March to the Sea” was to frighten Georgia's civilian population into abandoning the Confederate cause

Emancipation Proclamation

1863 BCE

The Emancipation Proclamation was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863. The Proclamation applied in the ten states that were still in rebellion in 1863, and thus did not cover the nearly 500,000 slaves in the slave-holding border states (Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland or Delaware) which were Union states. Those slaves were freed by later separate state and federal actions.

Gettysburg address

1863 BCE

The Gettysburg Address is a speech by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, one of the best-known in American history.

Battle at Gettysburg

1863 BCE

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.

Battle at Vicksburg

1863 BCE

The Siege of Vicksburg was the final major military action in the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War.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. This was the culmination of one of the most brilliant military campaigns of the war.

Battle of Antietam

1862 BCE

The Battle of Antietam /ænˈtiːtəm/, also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg, particularly in the South, was fought on September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland and Antietam Creek as part of the Maryland Campaign.

Formation of the Confederacy

1861 BCE

On February 4, 1861, the states farthest south, where slavery and plantations agriculture were dominant, formed the Confederate States of America with Jefferson Davis as President. They established their capital at Montgomery, Alabama and took over federal forts on their territory.

Battle of Bull Run

1861 BCE

The First Battle of Bull Run, also known as Battle of First Manassas, was fought on July 21, 1861 in Prince William County, Virginia, near the city of Manassas, not far from Washington, D.C. It was the first major battle of the American Civil War.

Attack on Fort Sumter

1861 BCE

The Battle of Fort Sumter was the bombardment of U.S. Fort Sumter, near Charleston, South Carolina, by the Confederates, and the return gunfire and subsequent surrender by the U.S. Army that started the American Civil War.

Income Tax

1861 BCE

In 1861, Lincoln imposes the first federal income tax by signing the Revenue Act. Strapped for cash with which to pursue the Civil War, Lincoln and Congress agreed to impose a 3 percent tax on annual incomes over $800.

Abraham Lincoln becomes president

1860 BCE

As the 1860 presidential election approached,
the Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln appeared to be moderate in his views. Although he pledged to halt the further spread of slavery, he also tried to reassure Southerners that a Republican administration would not “interfere with their slaves, or with them, about their slaves.” Nonetheless, many Southerners viewed him as an enemy.

John Browns Raid/Harpers Ferry

1859 BCE

John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry was an effort by white abolitionist John Brown to initiate an armed slave revolt in 1859 by taking over a United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.

Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas Debates

1858 BCE

The 1858 race for the U.S. Senate between Democratic incumbent Stephen Douglas and Republican challenger Congressman Abraham Lincoln. To many outsiders it must have seemed like an uneven match. Douglas was a well-known two-term senator with an outstanding record and a large campaign chest, while Lincoln was a self educated man who had been elected to one term in Congress in 1846.

Dread Scott v. Sandford

1857 BCE

A major Supreme Court decision was brought about by Dred Scott, a slave whose owner took him from the slave state of Missouri to free territory in Illinois and Wisconsin and back to Missouri. Scott appealed to the Supreme Court for his freedom on the grounds that living in a free state—Illinois—and a free territory—Wisconsin—had made him a free man.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

1854 BCE

The Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed by the U.S. Congress on May 30, 1854. It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. The Act served to repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which prohibited slavery north of latitude 36°30´.

Uncle Toms Cabin

1852 BCE

Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly, is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War.

Compromise of 1850

1850 BCE

The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850, which defused a four-year political confrontation between slave and free states regarding the status of territories acquired during the Mexican–American War.

Fugitive Slave Act

1850 BCE

Fugitive Slave Act surprised many people. Under the law, alleged fugitive slaves were not entitled to a trial by jury. In addition, anyone convicted of helping a fugitive was liable for a fine of $1,000 and imprisonment for up to six months. Infuriated by the Fugitive Slave Act, some Northerners resisted it by sending endangered African Americans to safety in Canada. Others resorted to violence to rescue fugitive slaves. Still others worked to help slaves escape from slavery.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

1848 BCE

On February 2,1848, the United States and Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Mexico agreed to the Rio Grande as the border between Texas and Mexico and ceded the New Mexico and California territories to the United States.

The North Star

1847 BCE

Frederick Douglass escaped from bondage to become an eloquent and outspoken critic of slavery. In 1847, Douglass began his own antislavery newspaper. He named it The North Star, after the star that guided runaway slaves to freedom.

Mexican-American War

Period: 1846 BCE to Nov 5, 1848

The Mexican–American War, also known as the Mexican War, the U.S.–Mexican War or the Invasion of Mexico, was an armed conflict between the United States of America and the United Mexican States from 1846 to 1848. It followed in the wake of the 1845 US annexation of Texas, which Mexico considered part of its territory, despite the 1836 Texas Revolution.

Texas enters the U.S.

1844 BCE

The Texans killed 630 of Santa Anna’s soldiers in 18 minutes
and captured Santa Anna himself. The Texans set Santa Anna free after he signed the Treaty of Velasco, which granted independence to Texas.

Texas Revolution

1835 BCE

The Texas Revolution began when colonists in the Mexican province of Texas rebelled against the increasingly centralist Mexican government.

Stephen F. Austin goes to jail

1833 BCE

Austin had traveled to Mexico City late in 1833 to present petitions to Mexican president Antonio López de Santa Anna for greater self-government for Texas. While Austin was on his way home, Santa Anna had Austin imprisoned for inciting revolution.

Nat Turner's Rebellion

1831 BCE

Some slaves rebelled against their condition of
bondage. One of the most prominent rebellions was led by Virginia slave Nat Turner. In August 1831, Turner and more than 50 followers attacked four plantations and killed about 60 whites. Whites eventually captured and executed many members of the group, including Turner.

Mexico Abolishes Slavery

1829 BCE

Many of the settlers were Southerners, had brought slaves with them to Texas. Mexico had abolished slavery in 1829, insisted that the Texans free their slaves.

The Liberator

1828 BCE

The most radical white abolitionist was a young editor named William Lloyd Garrison. Garrison became the editor of an antislavery paper in 1828. Three years later he established his own paper, The Liberator, to deliver an uncompromising demand: immediate emancipation

Santa Fe Trail

1821 BCE

Santa Fe Trail, which stretched 780 miles from Independence, Missouri, to Santa Fe in the Mexican province of New Mexico, was one of the busiest routes. Each spring from 1821 through the 1860s, American traders loaded their covered wagons with goods and set off toward Santa Fe.

Oregon Trail

1821 BCE

The Oregon Trail stretched from Independence,
Missouri, to Oregon City, Oregon. It was found in 1836 by
two methodist missionaries named Marcus and Narcissa
Whitman. They proved that wagons could travel on the Oregon Trail. Many pioneers migrated west on the Oregon Trail. The trip took months, even if all went well.

San Felipe de Austin

1821 BCE

Moses Austin, had received a land from Spain to establish a colony between the Brazos and Colorado rivers Stephen his son, in 1821 established a colony where “no drunkard, no gambler, and no profane swearer would be allowed. The main settlement of the colony was named San Felipe de Austin. By 1825, Austin had issued 297 land grants. Each family received either 177 inexpensive acres of farmland, or 4,428 acres for stock grazing, as well as a 10-year exemption from paying taxes.

Conscription

1800 BCE

Compulsory enlistment for state service, typically into the armed forces.