Civil War Timeline

By pandisciaa

  • Republican Party is formed

    The Republican Party is now one of the two main political parties known today.

  • Kansas-Nebraska Act passed

    Thi act repealed the Missouri compromise and created the territories known as Kansas and Nebraska.

  • Abraham Lincoln elected president

    Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election.

  • South Carolina votes to secede from the United States

    South Carolina didn't like how President Lincoln was voted into office. They decided to secede from the union.

  • Confederate forces fire on Fort Sumter

    Over 3,300 shells were shot at the fort in a 34-hour long bombardment.

  • Lincoln suspends habeas corpus

    Lincoln did this to give military authorities the necessary power to silence dissenters and rebels.

  • Richmond becomes the capital of the Confederacy

    The confederate congress voted to move their capital to Richmond.

  • First Battle of Bull Run is fought

    This was the first of two battles fought at the stream Bull Run.

  • Jefferson Davis elected president of the Confederacy

    He was voted in as a compromise between moderates and rascals.

  • The Merrimack and the Monitor fight of the Virginia coast

    This was a naval battle fought known as the first battle fought with ironclad warships.

  • Battle of Shiloh

    This was a crucial victory for the union at the end of the battle.

  • Robert E. Lee is named commander of the Army of Northern Virginia

    General Lee was now the leader and commander of the southern army.

  • Battle of Antietam

    The battle ended the Confederate Army's first invasion into the North.

  • Battle of Fredericksburg

    It was fought in the Eastern Theater of the war.

  • Emancipation Proclamation is announced

    This proclamation set every slave free from their work.

  • Battle of Chancellorsville

    It was a huge battle in the Civil War and was the principal engagement of the Chancellorsville campaign.

  • Battle of Gettysburg

    It was the turning point of the Civil War where General Lee tried to make an end to the war but immediately failed.

  • Confederates surrender at Vicksburg

    They surrendered because they lost their general John C.

  • New York City draft riots

    New Yorkers were so angry over the new draft law that they held extremely bloody riots for 5 days.

  • Lincoln gives his Gettysburg Address

    This is one of the most famous speeches ever. it addressed the victory in the Battle of Gettysburg.

  • Atlanta is captured

    Atalanta was captured in the Battle of Atlanta by the union

  • Abraham Lincoln defeats George McClellan to win re-election

    Abraham Lincoln won the election again and went on to serve his second term in office.

  • Sherman begins his March to the Sea

    General William T. Sherman begins his expedition across Georgia by torching the industrial section of Atlanta.

  • Congress passes the 13th Amendment

    The 13th amendment abolished slavery in the United States.

  • Lincoln gives his second inaugural address

    In his second inaugural address, he wanted to unify the broken nation.

  • Freedman’s Bureau is created

    Freedman's Bureau was an agency of early Reconstruction assisting freedmen in the South.

  • Richmond falls to the Union Army

    Confederate lines near Petersburg broke after a nine-month siege leaving their capital defenseless.

  • Robert E. Lee surrenders at Appomattox

    Officials in the confederate government fled as they knew they were going to have to surrender.

  • President Lincoln Assassinated

    President Lincoln was shot in the back of the head while watching a play in a theater.

  • John Wilkes Booth is killed

    John Wilkes Booth was the killer of President Lincoln.