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Election of 1860 : Nov 6th, 1860
In the 1860 presidential election republican candidate, Abraham Lincoln, defeated Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, and Constitutional Union candidate John Bell. The election was held on Tuesday, November 6th, 1860. The election was turmoil. The election increased the tension between the north and the south. -
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This event was important because it was the first time where the southern forces actually decided to branch off and create their own forces. This was the initial split between the north and south. -
Lower South Secedes : Dec 20th, 1860
Before Lincoln was actually inaugurated, seven southern states seceded, setting the stage for the American Civil war between the union and the Confederate army. This created rage between the north and south and really showed the union that the southern states were not going to conform to the ways that the north believed in and that they were going to continue running their states as they pleased. -
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Civil War
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Civil War
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Upper South Seceded : Apr-May 1861
After the battle of fort sumter the border states of Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina joined the new government, which then moved its capital to Richmond, Virginia. The Union was now divided approximately on geographic lines. Twenty-one northern and border states retained the style and title of the United States, while the eleven slave states adopted the nomenclature of the Confederate States of America. -
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This event was important because now the majority of the south was part of the confederate nation that would be fighting against the union forces. -
Firing on Fort Sumter : Apr 12th, 1861
When South Carolina seceded from the Union on December 20th, 1860. Major Robert Anderson of the Confederate army, and his force of 85 soldiers were positioned at Fort Moultrie near the mouth of Charleston Harbor. On December 26, fearing for the safety of his men, Anderson moved his command to Fort Sumter, an imposing fortification in the middle of the harbor. The south won this battle. -
Confederacy seeks help from europe : May 1861
The confederacy went to depths to provoke the european nations to help them and aid them in their fight against the union. At one point the Confederates ordered to have 2.5 million bales of cotton burned so that these european powers would take notice into their shortage. The confederates realized that they would need the aid of Europe to have any chance against the union in the long run. -
First battle of the Bull Run : July 21st 1861
The First Battle of Bull Run, also known as Battle of First Manassas (the name used by Confederate forces), 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. The confederate forces won the first battle of the Bull run. -
Congress passes first Federal Income Tax : Aug 1861
In August of 61, 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 about 800 dollars. Later in March, Lincoln had begun to take stock of the federal government’s ability to wage war against the South. -
Fort Henry and Donelson : February 6th, 1862
The Battle of Fort Henry on February 6, 1862, was the first significant Union victory of the American Civil War (1861-65). In an effort to gain control of rivers and supply lines west of the Appalachians, Union Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant and Commodore Andrew Foote launched an attack on the lightly defended Fort Henry in Tennessee. -
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After a fierce naval bombardment, Confederate Brigadier General Lloyd Tilghman secretly evacuated the bulk of his troops to nearby Fort Donelson before surrendering to Union forces. The fall of Fort Henry, followed 10 days later by the capture of Fort Donelson, opened up both the Columbia and Tennessee rivers to Union control, cutting off Confederate access to two key waterways for the remainder of the war. -
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After capturing Fort Henry on February 6, 1862, Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant advanced cross-country to invest Fort Donelson. On February 16, 1862, after the failure of their all-out attack aimed at breaking through Grant’s investment lines, the fort’s 12,000-man garrison surrendered unconditionally. This was a major victory for Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and a catastrophe for the South. -
Cont.
It ensured that Kentucky would stay in the Union and opened up Tennessee for a Northern advance along the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. Grant received a promotion to major general for his victory and attained stature in the Western Theater, earning the nom de guerre “Unconditional Surrender.” -
Battle of Monitor and Merrimack : March 9th 1862
The Battle of Hampton Roads, often referred to as either the Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack or the Battle of Ironclads, was the most noted and arguably most important naval battle of the American Civil War from the standpoint of the development of navies. It was fought over two days in 1862, in Hampton Roads, in Virginia. The battle was part of the Confederacy's effort to break the Union blockade, which had cut off Virginia's largest cities, Norfolk and Richmond, from international trade. -
Impose a draft : April 1862
The first general American military draft was enacted by the Confederate government on April 16, 1862, more than a year before the federal government did the same. The Confederacy took this step because it had to; its territory was being assailed on every front by overwhelming numbers, and the defending armies needed men to fill the ranks. -
Cont.
The compulsory-service law was very unpopular in the South because it was viewed as a usurpation of the rights of individuals by the central government, one of the reasons the South went to war in the first place. -
Second Battle of the Bull Run : August 29th 1862
It was the culmination of an offensive campaign waged by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia against Union Major Gen. John Pope's Army of Virginia, and a battle of much larger scale and numbers than the First Battle of Bull Run fought on July 21, 1861 on the same ground. -
Battle of Antietam : September 17th 1862
The Battle of Antietam also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg, particularly in the South, fought on September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland and Antietam Creek as part of the Maryland Campaign, was the first major battle in the American Civil War to take place on Union soil. It is the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with a combined tally of 22,717 dead, wounded, or missing. -
Emancipation Proclamation : January 1st 1863
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as 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." -
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Siege of Vicksburg: May-July 1st 1863
The North successfully takes control of one of the Confederacy's last major strongholds. This in turn grants the North to have control over major portions of the Mississippi River. The states of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas where cut off from the rest of the Confederacy. -
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Battle of Gettysburg: July 1st-July 3rd 1863
Considered the most important battle of the civil war, The Battle of Gettysburg was a battle in which general Lee marched his army from Virginia to Pennsylvania. Only the second time the confederates took an offensive approach to war and invaded the North, a confederate win in this battle would show the power of and threat posed by the confederates. In the end the North would prevail and prove that the South stood little chance of posing a threat to Northern territory. -
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Union casualties in the battle were around 23,000 troop, while the Confederates had lost some 28,000 men which came to more than a third of Lee’s army. -
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Sherman’s March to the Sea: Nov- Dec 21st 1864
General Sherman’s troops move from recently Union captured Atlanta, Georgia to the Port of Savannah. Along the way his army destroyed many targets key to the Confederacy’s infrastructure. -
Thirteenth Amendment Proposed: Feb 1865
This Amendment abolished slavery of any kind that was not to serve a punishment. It was proposed by the North, and it was their way of getting rid of slavery. -
Confederate Forces Surrender at Appomattox Courthouse: Apr 9th 1865
General Lee surrenders to General Grant effectively ending the Civil War. General Lee was hoping to retreat and reestablish his army of 28,00 troops with another army in north Carolina. After that plan was blocked by the Union he was forced to surrender. -
Lincoln is Assassinated: Apr 14th 1865
President Lincoln was murdered at a theater in response to the recently Union won Civil War. Actor and Southerner John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln after his earlier plan to kidnap Lincoln fell through and things were turning bad for the Confederacy fast. -
Lincoln Fun Facts
Fun Facts about Lincoln
Lincoln was a wrestler. He was documented as taking part in wrestling matches, but we don’t think he wore a mask or had a manager. He didn’t drink, smoke, or chew. Lincoln was a simple man of tastes, and he never drank in the White House. He didn’t have a middle name. Lincoln went through his life with two names.
