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Abraham Lincoln Elected President (first term)
Lincoln won from 180 electoral votes, all the others combined won 123. Lincoln had not received a single ballot in nearly one third of the states, and had not gained a single elector in the entire South. The election was nonetheless constitutional, legally fair, and as democratic as any previous election. -
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Events of and Leading up to the Civil War
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The Confederate States of America is Formed
On February 6, 1861, the six seceded states—South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, soon to be joined by Texas—sent delegates to Montgomery, Alabama, to attend a constitutional convention. Two days later a constitution was adopted which mirrored, in its language, the Constitution of the United States. -
Attack on Fort Sumter
On April 10, 1861, Brig. Gen. Beauregard, in command of the provisional Confederate forces at Charleston, South Carolina, demanded the surrender of the Union garrison of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. Garrison commander Anderson refused. -
First Battle of Bull Run
This act was the first war draft that the U.S. had to put into action. This draft called all men ages 20 to 45. It also called aleins if they were able to become a citizen by Apirl 1st. Now the Union would have an army. -
Trent Affair
Captain Charles Wilkes, commanding the Union frigate San Jacinto, seized from the neutral British ship Trent two Confederate commissioners, James Murray Mason and John Slidell, who were seeking the support of England and France for the cause of the Confederacy. -
First (Union) Conscription Act
This act was the first war draft that the U.S. had to put into action. This draft called all men ages 20 to 45. This is how the Union would have an army. -
Battle of Shiloh
40,000 Confederate soldiers under the command of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston poured out of the nearby woods and struck a line of Union soldiers occupying ground near Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River. -
Union Captures New Orleans
The capture of this vital southern city was a huge blow to the Confederacy. Southern military strategists planned for a Union attack down the Mississippi, not from the Gulf of Mexico. -
The Seven Day's Battles
The Seven days battle was another victory for the Confederates. Victory gave the South hope towards winning the war -
Second Battle of Bull Run
Waged by Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army against Union Major General John Pope's Army. This was a battle of much larger scale and numbers than the First Battle of Bull Run, -
Battle of Antietam
On September 17, Confederate forces under General Lee were caught by General McClellan near Sharpsburg, Maryland. This battle proved to be the bloodiest day of the war; 2,108 Union soldiers were killed and 9,549 wounded -- 2,700 Confederates were killed and 9,029 wounded. The battle had no clear winner, but because General Lee withdrew to Virginia, McClellan was considered the victor -
Battle of Fredericksburg
between General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and the Union Army of the Potomac, commanded by Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside. The Union army's futile frontal assaults on December 13 against entrenched Confederate defenders on the heights behind the city is remembered as one of the most one-sided battles of the American Civil War, with Union casualties more than twice as heavy as those suffered by the Confederates. -
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation is an executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War using his war powers. It proclaimed the freedom of slaves in the ten states then in rebellion, thus applying to 3.1 million of the 4 million slaves in the U.S. at that time. -
West Virgina becomes a state
On May 13, the state legislature of the reorganized government approved the formation of the new state. An application for admission to the Union was made to Congress, and on December 31, 1862 an enabling act was approved by President Lincoln admitting West Virginia on the condition that a provision for the gradual abolition of slavery be inserted in the Constitution.[citation needed] [15][16] The Convention was reconvened on February 12, 1863, and the demand was met. The revised constitution wa -
Battle of Gettysburg
Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee concentrated his army around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, upon the approach of Union Gen. George G. Meade’s forces. On July 1, Confederates drove Union defenders through Gettysburg to Cemetery Hill. -
Gettysburg Address
Abraham Lincoln gave this speech in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He mentioned that, "the world will little note... what we say here." However, some now say the speech was more important than the battle itself. It was a short speech, only 10 sentences. He basically summed up the consequences of the Civil War and stressed that the people who died in Gettysburg at the battle must be remembered. -
Battle of Cold Harbor
It was one of the final battles of Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign during the American Civil War, and is remembered as one of American history's bloodiest, most lopsided battles. Thousands of Union soldiers were killed or wounded in a hopeless frontal assault against the fortified positions of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's army. -
Lincoln is Re-Elected President (second term)
On November 8, President Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election for the second time. He had 212 electoral votes, and won the popular vote with 2,218,388, while his opposition, George McClellan had only 1,812,807 votes. -
Assassintation of President Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln and his wife Mary go to Ford's Theater to see the play "Our American Cousin" . During the third act of the play John Wilkes Booth shoots the president in the head at approx 10:13 p.m. President Abraham Lincoln dies at 7:22 the next morning. Vice President Andrew Johnson assumes the presidency -
Surrender at Appomattox Courthouse
On April 9, 1865, the American Civil War ended with the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee to Union General Ulysses S. Grant in the front parlor of Wilmer McLean's home in Appomattox Court House, Virginia.
