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South Carolina votes to secede from the United States
On November 10, 1860, The S.C. General Assembly called for a "Convention of the People of South Carolina" to consider secession. Delegates were to be elected on December 6. The secession convention convened in Columbia on December 17 and voted unanimously, 169-0, to declare secession from the United States. -
Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address
In his inaugural address, Lincoln promised not to interfere with the institution of slavery where it existed and pledged to suspend the activities of the federal government temporarily in areas of hostility. The government, insisted Lincoln, would “hold, occupy, and possess” its property and collect its taxes. -
Confederate forces fire on Fort Sumter
After a 33-hour bombardment by Confederate cannons, Union forces surrender Fort Sumter in South Carolina's Charleston Harbor. The first engagement of the war ended in Rebel victory. -
Lincoln suspends the habeas corpus
On April 27, 1861, Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus between Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia to give military authorities the necessary power to silence dissenters and rebels. Under this order, commanders could arrest and detain individuals who were deemed threatening to military operations. -
First Battle of Bull Run is fought
The First Battle of Bull Run, also known as the Battle of Manassas, marked the first major land battle of the American Civil War. The engagement began when about 35,000 Union troops marched from the federal capital in Washington, D.C. to strike a Confederate force of 20,000 along a small river known as Bull Run -
Jefferson Davis elected President of the Confederacy
On November 6, 1861, Jefferson Davis was elected president, not of the United States of America but of the Confederate States of America. He ran unopposed and was elected to serve for a six-year term. Davis had already been serving as the temporary president for almost a year. -
The Merrimac and the Monitor fight of the Virginia coast
On March 9, 1862, one of the most famous naval battles in American history occurs as two ironclads, the U.S.S. Monitor and the C.S.S. On March 8, Virginia sunk two Union ships and ran one aground off Hampton Roads -
The Battle of Shiloh
The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, took place from April 6 to April 7, 1862, and was one of the major early engagements of the American Civil War (1861-65). The battle began when the Confederate Army launched a surprise attack on Union forces under General Ulysses S. -
Robert E. Lee is named commander of the Army of Northern Virginia
Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was an American Confederate general best known as a commander of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He led the Army of Northern Virginia from 1862 until its surrender in 1865 and earned a reputation as a skilled tactician. -
Battle of Antietam
The Battle of Antietam, also called Battle of Sharpsburg, (September 17, 1862), in the American Civil War (1861–65), a decisive engagement that halted the Confederate invasion of Maryland, an advance that was regarded as one of the greatest Confederate threats to Washington, D.C. -
Battle of Fredericksburg
The fighting that took place in the houses and streets of Fredericksburg was the first major instance of urban warfare in the Civil War. Bitter Union troops set about pillaging the town after the Rebels were finally defeated on December 15. It lasted December 11-15. -
The Emancipation Proclamation
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." -
Battle of Chancellorsville
Fought in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, Lee's daring decision to face a force twice his size—Union General Joseph Hooker's Army of the Potomac—by splitting his own army in two made the Battle of Chancellorsville go down in history as Lee's most significant tactical victory. -
Richmond becomes the capital of the Confederacy
The Confederate capital was moved to Richmond in recognition of Virginia's strategic importance. Virginia was the South's industrial center, with an industrial output nearly equal to that of all other Confederate states combined. -
Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (July 1–July 3, 1863), was the largest battle of the American Civil War as well as the largest battle ever fought in North America. -
Confederates surrender at Vicksburg
The Confederacy is torn in two when General John C. Pemberton surrenders to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Vicksburg, Mississippi. In three weeks, Grant's men marched 180 miles, won five battles, and took 6,000 prisoners. -
New York City draft riots
The New York Draft Riots occurred in July 1863, when the anger of working-class New Yorkers over a new federal draft law during the Civil War sparked five days of some of the bloodiest and most destructive rioting in U.S. history. -
Lincoln gives his Gettysburg Address
In it, he invoked the principles of human equality contained in the Declaration of Independence and connected the sacrifices of the Civil War with the desire for “a new birth of freedom,” as well as the all-important preservation of the Union created in 1776 and it's ideal of self-government. -
Atlanta is Captured
Because of its location and commercial importance, Atlanta was used as a center for military operations and as a supply route by the Confederate army during the Civil War. Therefore, it also became a target for the Union army. General William Tecumseh Sherman and his troops captured the city in 1864 -
Abraham Lincoln defeats George McClellan to win re-election
In the midst of the American Civil War, incumbent President Abraham Lincoln of the National Union Party easily defeated the Democratic nominee, former General George B. McClellan, by a wide margin of 212–21 in the electoral college, with 55% of the popular vote. -
Sherman begins his March to the Sea
The purpose of Sherman's March to the Sea was to frighten Georgia's civilian population into abandoning the Confederate cause. Sherman's 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. -
Congress passes the 13th Amendment
Passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, the 13th amendment abolished slavery in the United States. The 13th amendment was passed at the end of the Civil War before the Southern states had been restored to the Union and should have easily passed the Congress. -
Freedmen's Bureau is created
Freedmen's Bureau, (1865–72), during the Reconstruction period after the American Civil War, was a popular name for the U.S. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, established by Congress to provide practical aid to 4,000,000 newly freed African Americans in their transition from slavery to freedom. -
Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address
On March 4, 1865, in his second inaugural address, President Abraham Lincoln spoke of mutual forgiveness, North and South, asserting that the true mettle of a nation lies in its capacity for charity. Lincoln presided over the nation's most terrible crisis. -
Richmond falls to the Union Army
The Rebel capital of Richmond, Virginia, falls to the Union, the most significant sign that the Confederacy is nearing its final days. For ten months, General Ulysses S. Grant had tried unsuccessfully to infiltrate the city. And finally, on April 2, 1865, Grant captured the capital of the confederacy. -
Robert E. Lee surrenders at Appomattox
In Appomattox Court House, Virginia, Robert E. Lee surrenders his 28,000 Confederate troops to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, effectively ending the American Civil War. ... Desertions were mounting daily, and by April 8 the Confederates were surrounded with no possibility of escape. -
President Lincoln assassinated
On the evening of April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor, and Confederate sympathizer assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. -
John Wilkes Booth is killed
Booth, a native of Maryland, was a fierce Confederate sympathizer during the Civil War. Before the fateful night at Ford's Theatre, he had conspired to kidnap Lincoln and hide him until all Confederate prisoners were released. After a 12-day manhunt, Booth was tracked down and killed by Union soldiers