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Shoemakers in New England took a strike where they were in hope of a labor union and increased wages. -
Abraham Lincoln delivers the Cooper Union Speech, and he has been giving speeches to get a nomination in the upcoming election. -
The Pony Express is a mail carrier that uses mounted horses which changed the way and how fast mail got everywhere across the US. -
In the Utah Territory, the Paiute War begins where the North Paiutes raided Williams Station. -
The Constitution Union Party holds a convention and nominated John Bell for president. -
For the Republican Party Candidate, Abraham Lincoln is nominated. -
The Paiute War brings with informal ceasefire bringing and end to the war. -
Abraham Lincoln wins the election to be the 16th president of the United States. -
The Crittenden Compromise is written hoping to resolve the U.S. secession crisis. -
South Carolina becomes the first state to succeed, with more states to follow. -
The southern states that have succeeded have formed their own country called the Confederate States of America, with Jefferson Davis as president. -
After winning the election, Abraham Lincoln is finally sworn in as president and can finally take action against the south. -
The Civil War begins when the South attacks the North at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. -
Robert E. Lee leaves the United States Army and become a general for the Confederate Army. -
Abraham Lincoln suspends the right of Habeas Corpus in Maryland which is the ability to appear before a court for a crime. -
Richmond, Virginia is declared to be the capital of the Confederate States. -
Queen Victoria claims neutrality for England, not taking sides with the South or North. -
Tennessee becomes the final southern state to succeed from the Union. -
The first major battle of the civil war comes to an end with a Confederate Victory. -
In hope to pay for the costs of war, Abraham Lincoln issues America's first income tax. -
Ulysses S. Grant wins the Union's first major victory by capturing Fort Henry in Tennessee. -
The Battle of Glorieta Pass takes place where the Union forces stopped the Confederates from invading New Mexico. -
The Battle of Shiloh took place in Tennessee where Ulysses S. Grant claims victory in an important stage. -
The United States Naval Academy was relocated to Newport, Rhode Island, from Annapolis, Maryland. -
Abraham Lincoln passes the Pacific Railways Act, which allows construction to start on the Transcontinental Railroad. -
The Second Battle of Bull Run takes place, where the Confederates crush the Union in Virginia. -
The Battle of Antietam takes place in Maryland and results in the bloodiest single-day battle in American history. -
Abraham Lincoln fires Geroge B. McClellan for not being proactive enough and replaces him with Ambrose Burnside. -
The first Navy hospital ships enter the war, in the hope to help injured soldiers. -
The Union suffered massive casualties in an attempt to capture Richmond. -
The Emancipation Proclamation is signed by Abraham Lincoln which states that all slaves in southern states are to be freed. -
Conscription, or the drafting of soldiers into military service, begins in the North. It had begun in the South the year before. -
The south wins a huge battle, but an important figure in the Civil War, Stonewall Jackson dies by friendly fire. -
Union forces siege Vicksburg, giving them ultimate control of the Mississippi River, which was a part to the Anaconda Plan. -
West Virginia breaks away from Virginia and becomes part of the United States of America because they don't believe in the same things that Virginia believes in. -
The Battle of Gettysburg takes place in Pennsylvania, in which the south tries to invade the north, but the Union comes out with the victory in the bloodiest battle in American History, as well as becoming a turning point in the war. -
Union Attack in Charleston, South Carolina, and the first regiment of volunteers of color seek to combat. -
Following the huge loss at Gettysburg, Robert E. Lee tries to resign as general of the Confederate Army, but Jefferson Davis doesn't allow him to. -
The first successful submarine sinks while testing, along with its inventor. -
President Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Adress, which becomes one of the most powerful speeches in history. -
109 Union soldiers escape from a Confederate prison in Richmond Virginia, making it one of the biggest escapes during the Civil War. -
The tiny Confederate submarine Hunley torpedoes the USS Housatonic, becoming the first submarine to sink an enemy ship (the sub and her crew of 8 are also lost). -
The Union suffers one of its costliest defeats at the Battle of Olustee near Lake City, Florida. -
President Abraham Lincoln appoints Ulysses S. Grant commander in chief of all Union armies. -
The Army of the Potomac, under General Ulysses S. Grant, breaks off from the Battle of the Wilderness and moves southwards. -
Arlington National Cemetery is established when 200 acres of the grounds of Robert E. Lee's home Arlington House are officially set aside as a military cemetery by U.S. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. -
President Abraham Lincoln signs a law that abolishes the commutation fee that could be paid in lieu of conscription. -
Union forces led by General William T. Sherman launch an assault on Atlanta, Georgia. -
Abraham Lincoln wins the re-election for his second term as president over George B. McClellan. -
Sherman's March to the Sea begins: Union General Sherman burns Atlanta and starts to move south, causing extensive devastation to crops and mills and living off the land. -
Confederate General Robert E. Lee becomes general-in-chief, which was a step up from his previous position. -
President Abraham Lincoln begins his second term. Andrew Johnson is sworn in as Vice President of the United States. -
The Confederate States of America agrees to the use of African American troops. -
"Evacuation Sunday" – Confederate President Jefferson Davis and most of his Cabinet flee the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, which is taken by Union troops the next day. -
General Robert E. Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Court House, effectively ending the Civil War. -
Actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth shoots and mortally wounds U.S. President Abraham Lincoln while Lincoln is attending an evening performance of the farce Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., and a day later, Lincoln dies. -
Jefferson Davis meets with his Confederate Cabinet (14 officials) for the last time, in Washington, Georgia, and the Confederate Government is officially dissolved. -
American Civil War: Surrender to the British at Liverpool of the commerce raider CSS Shenandoah (Captain James Waddell), the last significant organized Confederate unit. -
Captain Henry Wirz, Confederate superintendent of Andersonville Prison (Camp Sumter) is hanged, becoming the second of two combatants, and only serving regular soldiers, to be executed for war crimes committed during the American Civil War. -
The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (which abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime) is declared ratified by three-quarters of the states of the United States. -
The second United States Capitol dome is completed in Washington, D.C. after 11 years of work. -
Fisk University, a historically black university, is established in Nashville, Tennessee. -
The United States Congress overwhelmingly passes the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the first federal legislation to protect the rights of African-Americans; U.S. President Andrew Johnson vetoes the bill on March 27, and Congress overrides the veto on April 9. -
The Memphis massacre of 1866 was a series of violent events that occurred from May 1 to 3, 1866 in Memphis, Tennessee. The racial violence was ignited by political and social racism following the American Civil War, in the early stages of Reconstruction. -
The Judicial Circuits Act reduces the number of United States circuit courts to nine and the number of Supreme Court justices to seven. -
Tennessee becomes the first U.S. state to be readmitted to the Union following the American Civil War. -
The U.S. Congress passes legislation authorizing the rank of General of the Army (modern-day "5-star general"); Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant becomes the first to have this rank. -
The National Union Convention is held in Philadelphia with hopes to reconcile the Radical Republicans in Congress with the Reconstructionist policies of President Andrew Johnson. -
President Andrew Johnson goes on his Swing Around the Circle speaking tour to gain support for his Reconstructionist policies and Democratic Party candidates in the upcoming elections after he declared the war to be officially over. -
Despite President Andrew Johnson's Swing Around the Circle tour, the Republican Party wins in a landslide. -
The John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge opens between Cincinnati, Ohio and Covington, Kentucky, becoming the longest suspension bridge in the world. -
African-American men are granted the right to vote in the District of Columbia. -
Nebraska is admitted as the 37th U.S. state -
Congress asserted greater control over Reconstruction with a series of acts passed in 1867. -
Secretary of State William Seward negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia for the United States in 1867. For $7.2 million the deal added 586,412 square miles to the United States—one-fifth of the present United States. -
The first elevated railroad in the USA begins service in New York. -
In Boston, Massachusetts, the Harvard School of Dental Medicine is established as the first dental school in the United States. -
U.S. takes formal possession of Alaska from Russia, paying $7.2 million. -
Near Medicine Lodge Creek, Kansas, a landmark treaty is signed by southern Great Plains Indian leaders. The treaty requires Native American Plains tribes to relocate to a reservation in western Oklahoma. -
The Civil War has virtually ended, but there is still reconstruction left to be done.