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The Pony Express made its first trip.
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The first railroad reaches Kansas which allows better transportation and an easier way for slaves to escape.
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Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th president of the United States
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South Carolina becomes the first state to leave the Union.
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Total US population was 31,443,321
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Jefferson Davis is elected president of the confederacy. He is not inaugerated until about two weeks later.
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Under Confederate General Pierre Beauregard, the conderacy opne fires on Fort Sumter and beginning the Civil War.
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Lincoln orderd the Union army to blockade the southern pprts which the confederacy controlled.
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Union General Irvin McDowell suffers a defeat at Bull Run
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McClellan is appointed commander by Lincoln, taking McDowell's position.
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Ulysses S. Grant captures the Confederacy's fort on the Tennesse River
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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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Union and Confederate negotiators reach an agreement ("cartel") for prisoner exchanges.
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George B. McClellan begins to withdraw the Army of the Potomac, ending the Peninsula campaign.
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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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President Abraham 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.
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The U.S. Congress enacts a draft, affecting male citizens aged 20 to 45, but also exempts those who pay $300 or provide a substitute.
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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. Hooker retreats.
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After being severely wounded during Chancellorsville by his own soldiers, the South suffers a huge blow when Stonewall Jackson dies from his wounds.
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The tide of war turns against the South as the Confederates are defeated at the three day of Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. It was the bloodiest battle of the war.
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Vicksburg, the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River, surrenders to Gen. Grant and the Army of the West after a six week siege. With the Union now in control of the Mississippi, the Confederacy is effectively split in two, cut off from its western allies.
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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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The beginning of a massive, coordinated campaign involving all the Union Armies. In Virginia, Grant with an Army of 120,000 begins advancing toward Richmond to engage Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, now numbering 64,000, beginning a war of attrition that will include major battles at the Wilderness (May 5-6), Spotsylvania (May 8-12), and Cold Harbor (June 1-3).
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Union forces miss an opportunity to capture Petersburg and cut off the Confederate rail lines. As a result, a nine month siege of Petersburg begins with Grant's forces surrounding Lee.
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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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Grant's forces begin a general advance and break through Lee's lines at Petersburg. Lee evacuates Petersburg. The Confederate Capital, Richmond, is evacuated.The next day, Union troops enter and raise the Stars and Stripes.
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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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President Abraham Lincoln dies at 7:22 in the morning. Vice President Andrew Johnson assumes the presidency.
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Jefferson Davis is captured and taken prisoner near Irwinville, Georgia.
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The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, is finally ratified. Slavery is abolished.
