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Lincoln is elected president
Abraham Lincoln is elected as the 16th President of the United States. He was a Republican from Illinois whose main goal as President was to end slavery. -
Confederate States of America is formed
The Confederacy compromised U.S. states that declared secession and warred against the US during the American Civil War. -
Battle of Fort Sumter
On April 12th, 1861, forces from the Confederate States of America attacked the United States military garrison at Fort Sumter, South Carolina. Less than two days later, the fort surrendered. No one was killed. The battle, however, started the Civil War. -
President Lincoln declares a blockade of Southern ports
Lincoln proclaimed the blockade on April 19. He extended the blockade to include North Carolina and Virginia on April 27. By July of 1861, the Union Navy had established blockades of all the major southern ports. -
First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas)
The First Battle of Bull Run (called First Manassas in the South) cost some 3,000 Union casualties, compared with 1,750 for the Confederates. -
Battle of Shiloh
The Battle of Shiloh was fought on April 6-7 1862 in the American Civil War. The fighting took place in southwestern Tennessee. The Battle of Shiloh was a crucial success for the Union Army, led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Tennessee -
Battle of Antietam
The Battle of Antietam was a Union victory. The Union lost approximately 12,400 men to the Confederate's 10,700. The battle pitted Union General George McClellan's Army of the Potomac against General Robert E. Lee and his army of Northern Virginia. -
Emancipation Proclamation
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of the bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." -
Battle of Gettysburg
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. -
Gettysburg Address
The Gettysburg Address is a speech that U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivered during the Civil War to commemorate a new national cemetery at Gettysburg. The Gettysburg Address sought to give meaning to the sacrifice of soldiers who died during the war. -
Sherman's March to the Sea
Sherman's March to the Sea was a military campaign of the Civil War which was meant to frighten Georgia's civilian population into abandoning the Confederate cause. Sherman soldiers did not destroy any of the towns in their path, but they stole food and livestock and burned the houses and barns of people who tried to fight back. -
13th Amendment to the Constitution
The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." -
Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address
President Lincoln gave his second inaugural speech which urged people to "bind up the nation's wounds" caused by the Civil War and to move toward a lasting peace. -
Surrender at Appomattox Court House
This event occurred when Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union general Ulysses S. Grant because he wanted to prevent unneccesary destruction to the South -
Lincoln assassinated
On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was assassinated by well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth, while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C.