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Telegraph Was Invented.
The telegraph was invented by Samuel Morse in 1844, and telegraph wires soon sprang up all along the East Coast. During the war, 15,000 miles of telegraph cable was laid purely for military purposes. Mobile telegraph wagons reported and received communications from just behind the frontline. President Lincoln would regularly visit the Telegraph Office to get the latest news. The telegraph also enabled news sources to report on the war in a timely fashion, leading to an entirely stratedgy. -
Confederacy is Formed.
The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States (CS) or the Confederacy, was a government set up in 1861 by seven slave states (i.e. states which permitted slavery) of the Lower South that had declared their secession from the United States following the November 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln. Those seven states created a "confederacy" in February 1861 before Lincoln took office in March. After war began in April, four states of the Upper South. -
Gangrene Becomes A BIg Killer.
The biggest killer in the U.S. Civil War was not instant death by bullet or by cannonball: it was disease resulting from wounds. An estimated 388,500 men died from wounds and other illnesses, including gangrene. Doctors with dirty hands unknowingly infected wounds with gangrene-causing bacteria while trying to treat the injured soldiers. -
Richmond Falls to The Union Army.
On May 20 1861, the Confederate Congress voted to move the government to Richmond...With that, Virginia's capital had become the very symbol of the Confederacy, and the ultimate prize in a bloody war. -
1st Battle of Bull Run.
The First Battle of Bull Run, also known as First Manassas (the name used by Confederate forces), was fought on July 21, 1861, in Prince William County, Virginia, near the city of Manassas. It was the first major land battle of the American Civil War. -
The Monitor Battles the Merrimack.
Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack, also called Battle of Hampton Roads, (March 9, 1862), in the American Civil War, naval engagement at Hampton Roads, Virginia, a harbour at the mouth of the James River, notable as history’s first duel between ironclad warships and the beginning of a new era of naval warfare. -
The Military Draft is Enacted for the First Time.
The first general American military draft was enacted by the Confederate government on April 16, 1862, more than a year before the federal government did the same. The Confederacy took this step because it had to; its territory was being assailed on every front by overwhelming numbers, and the defending armies needed men to fill the ranks. The compulsory-service law was very unpopular in the South because it was viewed as a usurpation of the rights of individuals by the central government. -
New Orleans Falls to The Union.
The capture of New Orleans (April 25 – May 1, 1862) during the American Civil War was an important event for the Union. -
Lee Becomes Commander of Army of Northern Virginia.
Virginia when Robert E. Lee assumed command on June 1, 1862, in a battle to defend the city of Richmond from Union forces. -
Battle of Antietam.
Generals Robert E. Lee and George McClellan faced off near Antietam creek in Sharpsburg, Maryland, in the the first battle of the American Civil War to be fought on northern soil. -
Battle of Fredricksburg.
The Battle of Fredericksburg was fought December 11–15, 1862, in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia, between General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and the Union Army of the Potomac, commanded by Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside. The Union army's futile frontal attacks 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 -
Emancipation Proclomation Was Signed.
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. -
Battle of Chancellorsville.
The Battle of Chancellorsville was a major battle of the American Civil War, and the principal engagement of the Chancellorsville Campaign. It was fought from April 30 to May 6, 1863, in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, near the village of Chancellorsville. Two related battles were fought nearby on May 3 in the vicinity of Fredericksburg. The campaign pitted Union Army Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker's Army of the Potomac against an army less than half its size, Gen. Robert E. Lee's. -
Battle of Vicksburg.
The Siege of Vicksburg (May 18 – July 4, 1863) was the final major military action in the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. In a series of maneuvers, Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee crossed the Mississippi River and drove the Confederate Army of Vicksburg led by Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton into the defensive lines surrounding the fortress city of Vicksburg, Mississippi. -
Battle of Gettysburg.
The Battle of Gettysburg, fought from July 1 to July 3, 1863, is considered the most important engagement of the American Civil War. After a great victory over Union forces at Chancellorsville, General Robert E. Lee marched his Army of Northern Virginia into Pennsylvania in late June 1863. -
Attcak on Ft. Wagner.
After the July 11 assault on Fort Wagner failed, Gillmore reinforced his beachhead on Morris Island. At dusk July 18, Gillmore launched an attack spearheaded by the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, a black regiment. -
Quantrill Burns Lawrence.
The most famous of these battles was on August 21, 1863, when William Quantrill (a former Lawrence school teacher) led 400 Missouri men into Lawrence. They were intent on burning every house and killing every man. -
Lincoln Delivers the Gettysburg Address.
The Gettysburg Address is a speech by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, one of the best-known in American history.[4] It was delivered by Lincoln during the American Civil War, on the afternoon of Thursday, November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, four and a half months after the Union armies defeated those of the Confederacy at the Battle of Gettysburg. -
Lincoln Wins Re-Election.
On this day in 1864, Northern voters overwhelmingly endorse the leadership and policies of President Abraham Lincoln when they elect him to a second term. With his re-election, any hope for a negotiated settlement with the Confederacy vanished. -
Grant Takes Supreme Control Over the Union Army.
In 1862, Grant was promoted to major general and took control of Kentucky and most of Tennessee. He then led Union forces to victory after initial setbacks in the Battle of Shiloh, earning a reputation as an aggressive commander. In July 1863, Grant defeated Confederate armies and seized Vicksburg, giving the Union control of the Mississippi River and dividing the Confederacy in two. -
The 13th Amendment is Ratified, Abolishing all Slavery.
The 13th amendment, which formally abolished slavery in the United States, passed the Senate on April 8, 1864, and the House on January 31, 1865. On February 1, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln approved the Joint Resolution of Congress submitting the proposed amendment to the state legislatures. -
Battle Of Cold Harbor.
The Battle of Cold Harbor was fought from May 31 to June 12, 1864 (with the most significant fighting occurring on June 3). 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. -
Sherman Burns Atlanta.
General Sherman gave orders to burn all public buildings, machine shops, depots, and arsenals in Atlanta during the Civil War. While setting out for Savannah that same day Sherman stated, "Behind us lay Atlanta smoldering and in ruins, the black smoke rising high in the air and hanging like a ball over the ruined city." -
Sherman Reaches the Sea, (Savannah) Dividing the South.
After capturing Atlanta in September 1864, a victory that guaranteed the reelection of Abraham Lincoln and the continuation of the Civil War, Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, Union commander in the west, turned his thoughts to the most direct assault he could imagine on the heart of the Confederacy, one that targeted Southern morale. -
Licolns Second Inaugural Speech.
during his second inauguration as President of the United States. At a time when victory over the secessionists in the American Civil War was within days and slavery was near an end, Lincoln did not speak of happiness, but of sadness. Some see this speech as a defense of his pragmatic approach to Reconstruction. -
Appomatox Court House.
Early on April 9, the remnants of John Broun Gordon’s corps and Fitzhugh Lee’s cavalry formed line of battle at Appomattox Court House. Gen. Robert E. Lee determined to make one last attempt to escape the closing Union pincers and reach his supplies at Lynchburg. At dawn the Confederates advanced, initially gaining ground against Sheridan’s cavalry. The arrival of Union infantry, however, stopped the advance in its tracks. Lee’s army was now surrounded on three sides. Lee surrendered to Grant. -
Lincoln is Assainated.
United States President Abraham Lincoln was shot on Friday, April 14, 1865, as the American Civil War was drawing to a close end. The assassination occurred five days after the commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, General Robert E. Lee, surrendered to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant and the Union Army of the Potomac. Lincoln was the first American president to be assassinated, though an unsuccessful attempt had been made on Andrew Jackson 30 years before in 1835.
