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Jefferson Davis comes out in favor of secession for the first time.
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After being photographed by Matthew Brady, Abraham Lincoln speaks at the Cooper Institute in New York City.
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Abraham Lincoln becomes the 16th president of the United States. He was a member of the Republican party.
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South Carolina calls for a convention on December 17 to decide if the state should secede from the Union.
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South Carolina is the first state to ever secede from the Union. The Southerners were unhappy with Lincoln's plans to end slavery... their way of life.
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The Confederate States of America was formed with Jefferson Davis, a West Point graduate and former U.S. Army officer, as president.
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Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated and says that he had no plans to end slavery in states where it already existed, but would not accept secession. He hoped to resolve the national crisis without warfare.
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At 4:30am, Confederates under General Pierre Beauregard open fire with 50 cannons upon Fort Sumter in Charlestown, South Carolina. The Civil War begins.
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The Union Army, under General Irvin McDowell, suffers a defeat at Bull Run, 25 miles west of Washington, D.C. Confederate General Thomas J. Jackson earns his nickname "Stonewall" as his brigade resists Union attacks.
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Abraham Lincoln replaces McDowell with George B. McClellan as Commander of the Department of the Potomac.
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President Lincoln issues General War Order No. 1 calling for all United States naval and land forces to begin a general advance by February 22, George Washington's birthday.
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Confederate surprise attack on Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's unprepared troops at Shiloh on the Tennessee River results in a bitter struggle with 13,000 Union killed and wounded and 10,000 Confederates, more men than in all previous American wars combined. The president is then pressured to relieve Grant but resists.
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75,000 Federals under Gen. John Pope are defeated by 55,000 Confederates under Gen. Stonewall Jackson and Gen. James Longstreet at the second battle of Bull Run in northern Virginia. Once again the Union Army retreats to Washington. The president then relieves Pope.
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The bloodiest day in U.S. military history as Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Armies are stopped at Antietam in Maryland by McClellan and numerically superior Union forces. By nightfall 26,000 men are dead, wounded, or missing. Lee then withdraws to Virginia.
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Army of the Potomac under Gen. Burnside suffers a costly defeat at Fredericksburg in Virginia with a loss of 12,653 men after 14 frontal assaults on well entrenched Rebels on Marye's Heights. "We might as well have tried to take hell," a Union soldier remarks. Confederate losses are 5,309.
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President Lincoln issues the final Emancipation Proclamation freeing all slaves in territories held by Confederates and emphasizes the enlisting of black soldiers in the Union Army. The war to preserve the Union now becomes a revolutionary struggle for the abolition of slavery
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The Union Army under Gen. Hooker is decisively defeated by Lee's much smaller forces at the Battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia as a result of Lee's brilliant and daring tactics. Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson is mortally wounded by his own soldiers. Hooker retreats. Union losses are 17,000 killed, wounded and missing out of 130,000. The Confederates, 13, 000 out of 60,000.
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The South suffers a huge blow as Stonewall Jackson dies from his wounds, his last words, "Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees."
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The president meets with abolitionist Frederick Douglass who pushes for full equality for Union 'Negro troops.'
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President Lincoln delivers a two minute Gettysburg Address at a ceremony dedicating the Battlefield as a National Cemetery.
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President Lincoln appoints Gen. Grant to command all of the armies of the United States. Gen. William T. Sherman succeeds Grant as commander in the west.
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Democrats nominate George B. McClellan for president to run against Republican incumbent Abraham Lincoln.
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Abraham Lincoln is re-elected president, defeating Democrat George B. McClellan. Lincoln carries all but three states with 55 percent of the popular vote and 212 of 233 electoral votes.
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After destroying Atlanta's warehouses and railroad facilities, Sherman, with 62,000 men begins a March to the Sea. President Lincoln on advice from Grant approved the idea.
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Sherman reaches Savannah in Georgia leaving behind a 300 mile long path of destruction 60 miles wide all the way from Atlanta. Sherman then telegraphs Lincoln, offering him Savannah as a Christmas present.
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The U.S. Congress approves the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, to abolish slavery. The amendment is then submitted to the states for ratification.
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Gen. Robert E. Lee surrenders his Confederate Army to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at the village of Appomattox Court House in Virginia. Grant allows Rebel officers to keep their sidearms and permits soldiers to keep horses and mules.
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The Stars and Stripes is ceremoniously raised over Fort Sumter. That night, Lincoln and his wife Mary see the play "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater. At 10:13 p.m., during the third act of the play, John Wilkes Booth shoots the president in the head. Doctors attend to the president in the theater then move him to a house across the street. He never regains consciousness.
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President Abraham Lincoln dies at 7:22 in the morning. Vice President Andrew Johnson assumes the presidency.
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The Thirteeth Amendment of the United States Constitution, passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, is finally ratified. It states that slavery, in any state, is illegal.
