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Mail service that delivered messages and mail across the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains. West's most direct means of east-west communication.
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The Republican Party met in Chicago to discuss. They nominated Lincoln, a congressmen, as its presidential candidate.
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Kansas was a major part of the Civil War. It was a violent war zone, nicknamed 'the Bleeding Kanasas.' The railroad gave slaves an escape route.
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Abraham Lincoln is elected president, the first Republican, Receiving 180 electoral votes and winning the popular vote.
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Soth Carolina secedes from the Union. They are the first state to secede from the Union having other states like Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas follow the secession.
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Jefferson Davis formed the Confederate States of America as president. He was a former U.S. Army officer.
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Abraham Lincoln is sworn into office as the 16th President of the United States.
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Open fires with 50 cannons are shot at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. This is the official start of the Civil War.
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Lincoln issued the Proclamation of Blockade against Southern ports. This limits the ability of the rural South to stay supplied.
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Union army suffers defeat at Bull Run. Confederate General Thomas J. Jackson earns nickname "Stonewall", and Union troops fall back to Washington.
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Confederate surprise attack on Ulysses S. Grant's unprepared troops. Results in more men than all previous American wars combined.
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Bloodiest day in U.S. history as confederate armies are stopped at Antietam in Maryland. Lee withdraws.
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Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation is the freeing of slaves issued by President Lincoln.
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President replaces McClellan with Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside as new Commander of the Army of the Potomac. Lincoln was impatient with McClellan slowness.
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Armies under Gen. Burnside suffer defeat at Fredericksburg in Virginia. There are over 5,000 confederate losses.
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The South suffers huge blow as Stonewall Jackson dies from wounds. They lost a good leader in Confederate battles.
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Confederate are defeated at the battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. The war is turned against the South during this three day battle.
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Vicksburg is the last confederate stronghold on Mississippi River and surrenders to Grant. Union is now in control of Mississippi.
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President Lincoln meets with Frederick Douglass on this day. He pushes for full equality for the Union 'negro troops.'
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President Lincoln delivers two minute speech. He adresses equality and for a birth of freedom to all Americans.
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Grant makes a costly mistake by having 7,000 Union deaths against fortifield Rebels at Cold Harbor in Virginia. These casualties happened within a twenty minute span.
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Union forces miss opportunity to cut off Confederate rail lines and to capture Petersburg. Results in nine month siege with Grant's forces surrounding Lee.
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George B. McClellan is nominated for president to run against Republican incumbent Abraham Lincoln. The democrats nominate him to be in election.
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Sherman's Army captures Atlanta. This victory greatly helps President Lincoln's bid for re-election.
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Sherman marches to the sea after destroying railroad facilities and warehouses in Atlanta. President Lincoln approved this idea with 62,000 men beginning a March to the Sea.
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U.S. Congress approves of the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery. The Amendment is submitted to states for ratification.
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President Lincoln meets with Vice President Alexander Stephens at a peace conference in Hampton Roads in Virginia. Meeting fails, and war continues.
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General Grant advances and breaks through Lee's lines at Petersburg. Lee evacuates Petersburg, and fires and looting break out. Union troops enter and raise the Stars and Stripes.
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Robert E. Lee surrenders his Confederate Army to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in Virginia. General Lee surrenders in the Appomattox Court House.
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President Abraham Lincoln goes to see a play with his wife at Ford's Theter. Lincoln is shot in the head by John Wilkes Booth at 10:13 p.m.